


Pretty Maids All in a Row

by Finny3120



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Hurt/Comfort, Italian Tony Stark, Kid Peter Parker, Multi, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Loves Peter Parker, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:46:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28784403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finny3120/pseuds/Finny3120
Summary: The Avengers are on a mission investigating a semi-abandoned SHIELD base when Peter's comms cut out. When they find Peter, he has been inexplicably de-aged and has no recollection how it happened. Tony and the others have to work to find a way to reverse the process.Endgame doesn't exist. It's not real.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 49
Kudos: 397





	1. Hi There, How Are Ya?

“Tony, you’re going to want to see this,” Steve called over his shoulder.

“Did you find him? Is-,” Tony’s voice, augmented by the suit, abruptly cut off as he stepped quickly into the lab room that Steve had been searching. “Is that-?” he asked weakly.

“Tony, is this Peter?” They gazed down at the little boy with brown curls, who was trying to hide himself underneath a desk.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but I have a teenager about yea tall. Kind of talkative. That looks like an actual baby, which is disturbing in it’s own right-” Steve interrupted him before Tony’s anxious rambling could get into full steam. “Tony, he's wearing the suit.”

There was the metallic hissing noise of the suit disengaging before Tony stepped out of the suit. He crouched down so that he could look around the top of the desk. “Petey? Is that you?” Steve always forgot how gentle Tony could be until he saw him interacting with his kid.

There was a pause where no one moved. Then a soft shuffling noise and Steve saw the little boy for the first time since he had caught his movements. Light brown curls, chocolate eyes, and a blue and red suit that was much too big for him… “Daddy?” 

Peter crawled the rest of the way out from under the desk and, stepping closer to Tony, almost tripped over the trailing sleeves of the suit. His eyes brightened. “Daddy!”

The billionaire fell back on his ankles, sitting awkwardly on the ground as he seemed to process his shock. Steve, worried that Tony was going to have a heart attack, knelt beside the other man. He watched Tony’s face, wondering how he was going to react, hell wondering how the hell any of this had happened. Peter had been normal just an hour ago. Then his comms had gone dead. “Hey, bambino,” Tony said finally. He was squinting at the toddler, his head tilted, as if trying to puzzle out a difficult problem. “Cap and I have been looking for you.”

“I was in here. You should have looked in here,” Peter giggled. He tried to spin in a circle and actually tripped and fell that time. Steve grabbed him by his shoulders before he smacked his head on the desk. “Thanks! Daddy, what is this? A costume?” Peter held up the trailing sleeves again. He looked closer at Tony. “Why do you look so old?” he added.

Tony gave Steve a half glance. “Rogers, you see a little kid in front of me, right? I didn’t hit my head?”

“No, Tony, we’re seeing the same thing.”

Tony mumbled a quiet lordy and massaged his left arm. “Better tell the others we found him.” As Steve stepped away to relay the message to the other half of the team, he could hear Tony talking softly to Peter, trying to explain the Spiderman suit.

“Nat says the rest of the building is clear. They’re bringing the quinjet around.” Steve cleared his throat. “Tony, what happened?”

Tony gave his head a funny jerk. ‘No clue,’ he mouthed. “Petey, do you want me to fix your clothes so you can spin?” Peter nodded his head enthusiastically. “Okay. Okay, well I made this suit for you. It does something pretty cool. I’m going to press on this spider,” he explained carefully, “and the suit’s going to get smaller. It’s going to be a little tight, okay?”

“You’re actually taking this well, all things considered.”

“I’m freaking out on the inside,” Tony said out of the side of his mouth. “Ready?” Peter nodded his head three times, looking solemn. The billionaire tugged up on each of the legs so that Peter wasn’t standing on the excess material. He pushed the spider emblem gently. Steve watched with some amazement as the suit shrunk to fit Peter’s new size. “Better?”

“I don’t like it so tight,” Peter complained, his little brow furrowing.

“I know, baby, it’s just for a little bit. We’re going to get on the jet soon and I’ll find something else for you to wear.”

The toddler’s expression cleared up immediately. “We’re going to fly on a jet?”

“That’s right. The others-,” Tony cleared his throat. “Some of Daddy’s friends are getting ready right now. Do you know who this strapping young lad is?” he asked, indicating Steve. Steve crouched down as well, looking Peter in the eye.

“You’re wearing a silly suit too,” Peter giggled, looking at Steve.

“But what’s his name, bambino?”

Peter shrugged and hummed. He ran his fingers through Tony’s beard instead of answering. “Scruffy. Why are your hairs gray?”

“You’ve given me gray hairs. All of these are your fault,” Tony told the toddler who laughed again. He grabbed Peter under the armpits and lifted him into his lap. “Hey. Have you met my friend? His name is Steve.”

Peter smiled at Steve, but there was no recognition in his face. He was adorable though. “Hi Steve. I’m Peter. Peter Stark.”

“Tell Steve how old you are, bud.”

“I’m three,” Peter said, holding up five fingers.

“Wow, three already,” Tony hummed. “Pete, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Before you and Steve came in?” Peter frowned hard, concentrating visibly. Tony ran his fingers through the boy’s hair, seeming to check for visible wounds. “Oh! The room was green,” he whispered, leaning into Tony’s arms.

“The room was green?” Looking proud, the toddler nodded. Steve and Tony exchanged confused looks. Tony blew out a breath. “We’re going to have to lock this place down and study it after. That machine is giving me some serious concern,” he said, indicating a machine that Steve hadn’t noticed before, all of his attention focused on the much younger version of Tony’s son.

“We’ve taken any of the scientists that were still left here prisoner. It was pretty deserted Tony.”

“I’m going to want to question them. Not now though.” Left to his own devices, Peter had toddled off and was exploring the room around them carefully. As long as he didn’t touch anything, they should be fine. Both superheroes watched him as he moved around. “Steve, I need you to tell me this is reversible. Whatever the f-”

“Language.”

Tony groaned. There was a crackle of static and then Natalie spoke through the comms. “Quinjet in place on the roof. You guys okay?”

“There’s a bit of a situation developing,” Steve offered weakly, following Peter’s progress as he spun in lazy circles. “We’ll explain on the jet. Everyone else okay?”

“Everyone’s fine. We’re waiting on you at this point.” Though her tone was flat, Steve knew that she was curious about what was happening. He knew she wouldn’t be able to predict this though.

“We’ll be up as soon as we can get out of this maze.” He looked at Tony, who was away from his comms of course, since he had stepped out of his suit. “They’re waiting for us on the roof.”

Tony nodded. “We’re going to have to pack this room up later.” He pushed himself to his feet. “Pete! Ready to ride on the jet?” Peter nodded, running up beside them again. 

Steve helped steady his friend. “We are going to fix this, Tony.”

“Yeah. Yep.” The engineer seemed to shake himself out of a reverie. “Bambino, mio caro, come over here please.” Reluctantly, Peter sidled over from the machine he’d been looking at. Steve couldn’t help but notice how similar Peter and Tony looked in that moment, half annoyed, half intrigued. Tony lifted Peter into his arms. “Hey,” he said to the toddler, pecking him on the cheek. “I love you. I was worried.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know where you were. You know I don’t like it when I can’t find you.” Tony shifted Peter onto his hip. “It’s okay. I’ve got you now. You know Daddy takes care of it, right?”

“Yeahhh.” They followed the Ironman suit up and out of the compound they’d been investigating. Peter let Tony carry him for approximately five minutes before he began to wiggle and complain. The toddler was fascinated by the suit- which made sense since Steve estimated it would be another 4 or 5 years before he would see it in his timeline- and was happy to trail after it through the deserted corridors. 

Cap threw an arm around Tony’s shoulders. “We’re going to figure this out. Bruce will help.” He paused. “I don’t know what they were doing at this compound Tony, but I do know this. Peter was pretty damn cute, wasn’t he?”

That got a low chuckle from the billionaire. “He’s still cute. Just don’t let him hear you say that.” He startled Steve by making a sudden loud whistle and pointing to his feet, but Peter seemed to know what the engineer wanted; he grinned and ran back towards them. “I’m going to carry you the rest of the way, bud. No arguments, okay? We’re going to be up on the roof.”

Peter yawned. “Okay, D-Daddy.” He held his arms up, waiting to be picked up. Steve was going to go up the final flight of stairs when he noticed Tony seemed to be having trouble. The engineer seemed to be tugging on Peter to no avail; Peter was rooted to the spot and giggling madly. Steve doubled back, about to ask if the kid had retained his Spidey powers after all when he noticed that Tony was grinning too. ‘Why are you so heavy,’ Steve heard him whisper in Peter’s ear which made Peter shriek with laughter. “You have to press the right button,” Peter told him.

“Which button? Here,” Tony guessed, jabbing Peter in the side. “Here? What about here?”

“You knowww…” Peter tapped his earlobe.

“Ohhh. Okay.” Tony tapped Peter on the earlobe lightly and then scooped Peter up quickly, as though he weighed nothing. “Thank goodness that worked. I thought we were going to have to leave you behind.” He glanced up at Cap, who knew he was grinning goofily at the two of them; an almost guilty look came over Tony’s face. “Sorry, it was an old game.” He let Steve go up the stairs first, following him up.

The rooftop was almost too bright after the dark and quiet corridors they’d been following. Sun was glinting off the Ironman armor as it clanged in front of them. Steve glanced over to the quinjet. Someone was coming down the stairs… there was a flash of red hair. Natasha stepped over to them quickly. She made brief eye contact with Steve before looking beyond him to where Tony was carrying Peter, shielding his face protectively from the abundance of light. “Is he okay?” she called. “What… Why does he look so small?” she asked, tersely changing subjects.

“He was like this when Tony and I found him. Let’s get him on the jet.”

“Is he… a toddler?” she asked, stepping astride Tony.

He nodded. “We don’t know why. We’re going to find out.” The jet door closed behind all of them. “Well, the gang’s all here,” he added, his eyes sweeping around at the team who had been with them. They were all gazing at him with various stages of shock. Tony sighed, sweeping a hand across his hair absently. “Yeah, Pete’s having a Chuck E Cheese moment.”

With Steve’s help, they explained how they had come to find Peter and the few clues he and the room had provided. Steve thought Sam’s swearing might bother Tony, but Tony seemed largely unconcerned and with a glance at Peter, Steve realized why. Somewhere during the discussion, Peter had fallen asleep, his tiny fist clutching at Tony’s shirt. Tony rocked gently back and forth, gazing thoughtfully down at what had hours earlier, been his teenage son.


	2. It's Been a Long Time

When Tony was certain that Peter had fallen completely asleep, they disengaged the Spiderman suit so that Bruce could give him a more thorough examination to determine if there was anything immediately wrong. The others drifted off to different parts of the plane to give them some privacy, though Steve could almost sense the worried glances that the little group was attracting.

Steve pulled over a medical cot, which Tony laid Peter upon tenderly before pulling the Spidersuit off of him completely. He huffed a little in vague amusement at Peter’s Spidey themed boxers. ‘He wears his own fucking merch,’ Tony muttered under his breath. Steve felt that he probably should give them room as well, but though he knew he was largely superfluous, he couldn’t help remaining by their side.

He hadn’t known Tony when Peter was this little. Peter was a pre-teen by the time Tony and the other Avengers began working together, so seeing him interact with Peter as a toddler was undeniably fascinating. “I’m going to want a full work up when we get back to the Avengers Compound,” Tony told Bruce. “Pete had asthma as a kid… It could be pretty bad. And he was susceptible to literally every cold. We don’t know if he still has his powers…”

Bruce began to make notes. They turned Peter over gently to look at his backside. He had one bruise forming on his backside that had made Tony’s eyes flash dangerously. Besides that, there were no visible marks to explain what had happened.

Tony and Bruce began to toss theories back and forth on what had happened, but Steve couldn’t follow most of it. There was a sewing kit in one of the utility compartments and, retrieving it, he pulled out two safety pins which he passed to Tony. Tony used them to pin Peter’s boxers into shorts that would stay up. Natasha, coming over at last, brought with her the smallest scrub top Steve suspected they had on the jet. Tony pulled it on to Peter with practiced ease, somehow a more real reminder that Cap’s wisecracking friend was actually a father than anything else had up until this moment.

“So everyone got out okay?” Tony asked Natasha as he settled Peter on his chest comfortably. 

She nodded, slipping her hand into Cap’s as she sat next to him. “Sam got banged up pretty badly. They shot out one of his wings. And Bruce has already looked at my arm.”

“What happened to your arm?” Steve glanced over at her, surprised he hadn’t noticed the taped bandage before now.

“She was shot,” Bruce said lightly.

“Excuse me, you were shot?” Tony whispered harshly from Steve’s right side. He leaned around the supersoldier to look the assassin in the eye.

“Just nicked the arm,” she shot back at him. “Like you’re so transparent about your injuries.”

“Speaking of which,” Steve said slowly, realization dawning, “You were hurt, Tony. You got thrown down those stairs.”

Tony looked briefly lost. “Oh. Oh yeah.” He shrugged. “The suit absorbs most of the impact. And then we figured out that Peter was missing… I forgot. Really.” He wagged a finger in the Widow’s face. “My baby was missing, Triple Threat. You know he’s my top priority.” She shrugged.

“Well, since he seems to be relatively safe now, you’ll have no objections.” She gestured to the cot. He sighed, but rose from his seat. For a moment, Tony hesitated- rare for him- then completely unexpectedly, he passed Peter over to Steve. Steve hadn’t held a child since before his soldiering days; he felt something stirring in his heart. “Hey, bud,” he whispered, beaming down at Peter. Peter snuffled and burrowed into Steve’s shirt.

“You know, there weren’t a lot of scientists at the SHIELD compound,” Tony told Nat thoughtfully as he slipped his t-shirt over his shoulder. He hissed slightly, the movement seemingly painful. Steve was startled to see the overlapping bruises beginning to form. “Do you think they were tipped off?”

“I think it was a trap,” she said. “You look terrible, by the way.”

“So the usual then?” he snarked at her. She flicked his cheek and he huffed, sounding amused. “FRIDAY, call Happy.”

The call connected after a single ring. “Everything alright, boss?”

“For the most part. I need something Hap- actually a couple of things,” Tony said thoughtfully. He lifted his arms so that Bruce could run bandages over his ribs. “I need you to grab May and bring her up to the compound. And then-” He was cut off abruptly.

“Is the kid alright?”

“Keep it up, Happy, I’ll start to think that you like the kid better than me.”

“I do.”

Tony fake gasped, then moments later made a real gasp as Bruce fixed the bandages tightly around his ribs. “I’m alright,” he mumbled. “Yeah, Pete’s… Pete’s okay. As Captain Rogers put it, we have a bit of a situation developing,” he said, eyeing his son in said captain’s arms. “Physically, he seems to be fine.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Tony hummed and taking his phone from his pocket, snapped a photo of Peter and Steve. He must have sent it to Happy because there was a brief silence before the bodyguard growled, “What the hell did you do?”

“This is not my fault. For once, I am blameless.” Steve’s enhanced hearing could hear Happy mutter under his breath a quick ‘you have never been blameless,’ but if Tony heard the comment himself, he chose to ignore it. “This brings me to my second need. I need you and May to pick up some clothes for Peter, okay? He’s about three years old. Three to five, if you go by the finger scale. May will know what to get and she’s got my credit card so…”

“Wait, wait, you’re putting it on me to tell May about this-?”

“Is the line breaking up? We seem to be experiencing some turbulence and I just can’t make out what you said,” Tony spoke louder over Happy’s protests. “Blues and purples, Happy! Nothing in orange, you know he hated that. FRIDAY, end call.”

“You’re going to give Happy a coronary,” Steve told Tony.

“I keep him young.”

“Tony, those bruises look pretty awful.”

The engineer sniffed. “Well, we can’t all have your super healing, Capsicle.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes with the same brightness that Steve had grown accustomed to seeing. “What if something’s wrong with Peter that we’re not seeing?” He dragged his hands through his hair. Steve had seen this same behavior in the younger Stark when he was stressed. He tried to smile at Tony, but Tony’s words had made his stomach drop.

“It’s going to be okay. We’ll never let anything happen to Peter.”

Nat leaned forward to grab Tony’s hands in hers. “You can scoff at Steve cause he’s kind of an eternal optimist and that makes it hard to believe him at times, but I happen to agree with him this time and you know I don’t go in much for false optimism. Everyone loves Peter, Tony. We’ll figure this out.”

Tony needled at his eyes. “There must be something I’m missing. We infiltrated this base because there were reports that children in the nearest towns were going missing. What was happening to them? What if they were hurting them? We didn’t find any kids…” His eyes widened, a sure sign that a panic attack was impending. 

Natasha must have sensed Tony’s growing panic as well. She grabbed him on both sides of his face. “Hey, look at me. Peter’s fine. He’s right here and he’s okay. Look at him.” She gently turned the billionaire’s face. He sighed and closed his eyes. “Take a deep breath.” She led him through several breathing exercises until his panting stopped.

“Sorry,” he muttered finally.

“Don’t apologize.”

“I’m going to- going to see how Sam’s doing,” he said, standing up stiffly. “You okay to babysit for a few minutes Rogers?” he looked at the blonde superhero, his familiar mask back in place. Steve hated how Tony had been conditioned to never show weakness. He nodded. Tony squeezed his shoulder slightly in thanks, then walked towards the front of the jet.

“He’s right to be worried though,” Nat said, her eyes tracking Tony’s progress. She glanced over at Steve. “We haven’t found any sign of those missing kids.”

Steve didn’t want to think about it. The thought of kids being hurt had always made him feel ill; to think that something could be happening to Peter was unbearable, particularly when he looked like this, so young and trusting and vital. Steve cast around for something practical to focus on. “How far out are we from the compound?”

“Another hour.” Tony was back. He held out his hands and Steve reluctantly passed Peter over. Tony beamed for the first time since they had started on this mission. “Hey, bello mimmo, Daddy has you.” He kissed the toddler on the forehead, one hand stabilizing Peter, while the other held him up. 

Steve didn’t want to talk about the HYDRA compound or the missing kids anymore. With not much they could do in the given moment, it only made his feeling of anxiety grow, so he couldn’t imagine how Tony was feeling. He cast around for a change of topic. “What do you think Peter’s going to say when we get him back to where he should be?”

“He’s going to be embarrassed as hell,” Tony decided. His mouth quirked. “I intend on taking a lot of pictures…” He kissed Peter’s hand absently. “It’s been over a decade since I had a toddler,” he mused. 

“Peter told Tony he looked very old,” Steve confided in Natasha. She tittered.

“He does look old.”

“I’m not so old that I can’t hear you. And I’m still in the prime of my life. Look at me,” he smiled winningly at the other two.

“What did you look like when Peter was three?” Nat asked curiously. She slid her phone out. “Tony Stark,” she squinted at the man across from her, “2003.” Both her and Steve looked at the photos that came up next to the actual man. Tony, for his part, did his best to look young. “Wow, you basically look the same.”

“I’m aging like a fine wine.”

That was too much for Steve. He broke into laughter, throwing his arm around Natasha. Tony looked offended for approximately 30 seconds before he too began to laugh. Outside, the sun was dropping low on the horizon.


	3. Seems Like We've Come a Long Way

The Compound was blissfully quiet when they got back, the sun already gone past the horizon. A faint shade of pink was all the evidence remaining of the day they’d had. Peter woke when they exited the quinjet, fussy and clingy. He buried his face in Tony’s shoulder and wouldn’t look at any of the other heroes; Steve was concerned because Peter seemed so different even from the toddler they’d found in the afternoon, but Tony just bounced Peter absently on his hip as they rode the elevator up to their living quarters.

“Hungry Daddy,” he whined.

“I know, baby,” Tony soothed. He grabbed a banana from the bowl on the counter and peeled it awkwardly with one hand. Biting off a piece, he offered it to Peter. “Have some banana. Daddy’s going to make you food.”

Peter took the smallest bite he could of the offered fruit, his face suggesting that Tony was actively trying to poison him. Tony tried to hand him the banana to hold, but Peter clung tighter to his shirt. Sam watched Tony trying to open the fridge with his foot for a full minute before he agreed to make dinner. Steve privately thought that Sam would have let him linger in his conundrum for much longer if they weren’t all afraid of the oncoming tantrum associated with a hungry, sleepy toddler.

“He’s just overtired,” Tony explained to Steve when the blonde asked about the significant mood change. “My whole schedule used to revolve around keeping him happy.”

“Still does, Stark,” Sam commented from the freezer.

FRIDAY broke in. “May Parker and Happy Hogan just arrived at the compound, boss.”

“Direct them this way, please FRIDAY,” he said, wandering into the living area. He took another bite of the banana. Peter whined; he seemed to have decided the fruit was his after all and he didn’t appreciate Tony taking it from him. Tony sat, holding out the banana again. Peter slid off of his lap and used the back of the couch to pull himself up so that he could see where all the other Avengers were standing.

Now that he was eating, Peter seemed less inclined to tantrum. Eating the banana in such a way that half of it fell on the front of his scrub top, he gazed around the room curiously. Tony picked the piece of banana off his shirt and popped it in Peter’s mouth. “It’s not as disgusting as it looks,” he told Steve, wiping his hand on his pant leg.

There was a dinging noise as the elevator arrived on their floor. May followed Happy into the living room, took one look at Peter standing on the couch cushions and said, “Oh god, that was a real picture.” She sat down heavily next to Bruce. “Tony… how’s this even possible? What did you do?”

Tony picked Peter up- perhaps, Steve thought privately, to use him as a human shield against May Parker’s wrath- and held up a hand. “This is not my fault.” He pointed at her. Peter laughed and pointed too.

May made a sawing motion at her neck. “Cut the bull, Tony.”

“Happy was supposed to explain everything.”

“Well, Happy said that Peter was a 3 year old. He couldn’t tell me why. That’s not on him,” she told Tony sternly, poking him in the chest. “What did you do to our kid?”

“Nothing, honestly,” Tony’s voice rose in indignation. He bounced Peter on his hip. “I brought Peter on this mission to fight Nazis- which you okayed, by the way- and I got knocked down a flight of stairs. Peter went after the guys that did it, stopped talking to us, I kicked ass, we found my baby, he was an actual baby, because he was an actual baby, he couldn’t tell us anything, I brought him here and we’re running tests,” he summarized in one long ramble. “May, I don’t know how this happened,” he added in a whisper.

There was a moment where Aunt May sat quietly, seeming to digest what Tony had just said. The rest of the team watched as the two siblings seemed to communicate silently between the two of them. “Alright,” she said finally. “You’d better figure this out Tony.”

“Alright?” Sam asked loudly in disbelief. He had frozen with a bag of brussel sprouts in his hand, watching their argument like a tennis match, and now seemed to find it difficult to believe the match was already over. “The kid freaky-Fridayed himself into an actual baby and you’re just okay with it? What’s with this family?”

“Well, we’re Starks,” Tony said offhandedly, as if that explained anything.

“Which means what exactly?” Sam said, glancing between the two of them.

Tony said, “You learn to compartmentalize,” at the exact same moment that May said, “Life’s been so fucking weird already, this might as well happen.” They both shrugged.

Scoffing noticeably, Sam treaded back towards the kitchen to start cooking dinner. The other Avengers drifted to different parts of the living quarters.

Tony glanced over at his bodyguard best friend. “Happy, did you happen to bring the clothes I asked for?” The grumpy man nodded offhandedly, and began to bring bags over. “You guys went a bit crazy, huh?” Tony said to May. She scooted over to where Peter was. Tony began to dig through the bags.

“Don’t push your luck, kid,” she said, flicking the inventor. Peter vocalized loudly, getting her attention. She broke into a wide smile and pulled the toddler into a hug. “How’s my baby? What did Dad do to you?” Letting go, she peeled the scrub top off, using it to wipe at his banana covered face.

He let her without resistance, but he tracked her with his dark eyes. “Mad at Daddy?”

“No, you know Daddy and I just love each other in a loud way,” she said smoothly. Tony snorted, but leaned over and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She reached up and smushed his face against her. “That’s what happens when you’re born only ten months apart.”

“If the roles had been reversed, I wouldn’t have been so bossy,” Tony mumbled into her ear. He laughed when she shoved him away. “Come on Pete, let’s get you into some warmer clothes.”

The two Starks continued to banter through dinnertime. The only thing the two of them seemed to consistently agree on was that they loved Peter. May gained Sam and Natasha’s favor by telling them how she used to use Tony as a large doll when they had been kids, something Tony denied voraciously.

Steve regretfully left the others after dinner to check in with the SHIELD soldiers who had taken over the HYDRA compound to search and catalog the base for clues. He regretted agreeing to sitrep after the long day they’d had; he could feel a migraine forming at the base of his skull. There was a movement behind him as the holoscreens came to life. He glanced over his shoulder. Natasha stepped to his side. She listened beside him as the agents on the screens described what they had already found, frown lines deepening the more they heard.

By the time the screens went dark, the update over, Steve’s headache was full blown. He sat at the conference table, massaging his temples. Natasha sat beside him. “How are we going to tell Tony this?” he whispered at last. “It’s going to just scare him.”

“I know.” She brushed hair off his forehead. “He still needs to know though.” Steve nodded, his head in his hands. “Another migraine?” At his assent, she pulled him to his feet. “We can head it off by getting your meds. Let’s go to the medbay. FRIDAY? Turn down the lights on our way, please.”

They detoured to the medbay where Bruce was sitting by a microscope. “Any good news Bruce?” Steve asked.

Bruce looked up. “Well, for all intents and purposes, Peter does seem to be healthy. The blood tests don’t show any abnormalities.”

“You did blood tests?” The scientist nodded. Steve sighed. “Pete doesn’t even really like needles when he’s his usual age.”

Bruce smiled tightly. “We did the best we could, but he was a bit upset, yes. Steve, are you alright?”

“He’s got a migraine.”

“You should have led with that.” Bruce crossed to the other side of the room and unlocked the medicine cabinet. “These should take care of it, but they will make you tired.” He shook out the correct dosage into Steve’s hand and got him a glass of water. “What do you think caused it?”

Steve downed the pills in one gulp. “Just everything,” he said wearily. “Due for one, I guess. Thanks Bruce. I’ll go update Tony about what we heard… It’s bad news, Bruce.”

“For Peter?” He looked between Natasha and Steve.

Natasha spoke. “We still don’t have much information about Peter. But we found out some other things about what they were doing… Where those kids went…” Taking turns, they updated Bruce about what they had found out. He stopped them finally, shaking his hand in front of him. They sat in silence.

“Well,” Steve said finally. “The meds seem to have taken effect Bruce. Thanks.”

“Are you still going to update Tony?”

He sighed. “I should. Where’d he go?”

“He’s with Peter. In Pete’s room, I believe.”

Steve nodded and bade the other two Avengers good night. He passed through empty corridors, glad to meet no one in his travels. ‘Maybe he shouldn’t tell Tony tonight,’ he thought to himself remembering the panic on Tony’s face back in the quinjet. He knew that Tony was just as tired as he was, probably more so at this point now, knowing how the engineer kept odd hours. He could tell him tomorrow...

Steve tapped on the door to Peter's bedroom gently. Hearing a quiet 'enter,' he pushed his way in. Tony was sitting on Peter's bed, his back pressed against the baseboard. The toddler was playing next to him, smashing two action figures together in mock battle. "Hey," he said awkwardly, not sure if Tony would want some space.

"Hey, Cap," Tony said, looking up from the tablet he'd been working on. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see how you were doing. This has been a weird day, huh?"

Tony blew out a breath and laughed. "Yep. Weird might cover it. Take a seat, Steve." The captain looked around the room. Peter's room was distinctly that of a teenage boy, messy and full of nerdy stuff. There was a seat by the desk, but it was covered in clothes. Tony turned off his tablet and tossed it on the bedside table. He slapped the other side of the bed. "Don't worry, it's safe. I had just changed the sheets before this all happened."

“He’d kill you if he knew what you were saying,” Steve muttered, watching Peter smash what he had just realized was an action figure of himself into an Ironman figure. Peter was quietly narrating what seemed to be an important battle. “Does he know those are us?”

Tony shook his head. “No, he just thinks they’re cool. Do you have an update?” He glanced over at the blonde soldier who nodded. “Okay. We’ll have to wait for him to go to sleep. Which should be soon.” He cleared his throat. “Pete, it’s time for your superheroes to go to bed. Finish up.”

Peter climbed over Tony’s legs. “But they aren’t tired.” He shoved the Ironman figure in Tony’s face.

Tony bounced his legs under the toddler. “I can say with absolute certainty that this one is tired,” he said, pointing to the Ironman figure. “This one made the poor choice to stay up all night working on his inventions and then got thrown down some stairs by the evil enemy,” he told Peter who was hanging on his every word. “And now he’s just had a huge fight with one of his closest friends.”

Steve watched him, feeling especially fond of the engineer as he took the Captain America figure. Tony smirked at the figure. “I would guess,” he said, looking over at Steve, “that this one decided to get up for his morning run at 5:00 in the morning. And then he had a mission. What do you think?” he asked Peter.

“Do you think he runs every morning?” Peter asked through a yawn.

“Hmm. He does a runner’s physique,” Tony decided. “Can you put them to bed? I thought you wanted to read a book. I thought Steve might read for you.”

“Don’t you think he’d prefer you to read to him?”

“Steve, we’re going to read this book so many times, everyone will get more than a chance,” Tony said, shoving a book called Sophie’s Masterpiece into Steve’s hands. “It was his favorite… I know, it’s ironic now.”

Tony got up from the bed and herded Peter into the bathroom. Steve thumbed through the book- which turned out to be about a spider- and absently listened as Tony walked through Peter through the process of using the toilet, brushing his teeth, and climbing into pajamas. Tony walked out of the bathroom, carrying Peter on his hip. Now that Steve knew about Tony’s injured ribs, he couldn’t help but notice that Tony was favoring his right side.

Tony dumped Peter on the bed. “Look what May did. This was deliberate.” He turned Peter so that Steve could see his pajamas more clearly. Steve choked on a laugh. May had bought Peter Captain America pajamas. 

“Are they all like that?”

“There’s also a Thor set and Spiderman set.”

Peter leaned backwards into Tony. “Daddy, I like my new pajamas,” he said. Tony spread his hands in dramatic defeat. Peter giggled. “You have to read too,” he told his dad, pulling at his hands to move him closer to the bed. Tony slid under the covers and nodded, making himself comfortable. Peter crawled over him, stepping on Tony’s chest- Tony let out an audible gasp of pain- and slid under the covers in between the superheroes. He wriggled around until his head was jammed in Tony’s armpit, using the man’s arm as his pillow. “We should have a sleepover, Daddy.”

“You want me to sleep in here tonight bud?”

“And Steve. He’s our friend.”

“Steve would probably like to sleep in his own bed.”

“He can pick after he reads. You have to.”

Both Starks blinked owlishly at Steve in mirrored expressions of expectation. He read through Sophie’s Masterpiece, showing Peter the illustrations (Peter insisted that he make sure Tony saw them too), then a book predominately about a mouse and a strawberry, then Frog and Toad. Captain was pretty sure that Tony was just fucking with him at this point, but the engineer reread Sophie’s Masterpiece again at Peter’s request, patiently letting Peter examine the pictures.

“Are these the books you had when he was actually three?” Steve asked, running his hand over the worn cover of the book in his hand.

“They were his favorites. We have a whole shelf in the library full of them.” He put the books on top of the headboard and craned his neck down to look at his son. “You’re falling asleep.”

“Not.” Peter clearly was. “You have to stay until I fall asleep. And then after.”

“I’ll stay until you fall asleep,” Tony agreed. He curled on his side as best as he could with his arm still pinned. With his free hand, he rubbed the toddler’s stomach. “You’re almost asleep, bambino. Why are you holding on?”

“I want you to sing.”

Tony hummed, looking up at Steve. “I don’t sing,” he said defiantly. Steve grinned at him; he could have been kind to Tony and left at that point, but instead he slid down on the bed and laid on Peter’s other side. The two men held each other’s gaze, a battle of wills until Peter piped up. “Sing about the maids.”

“What maids?” Steve asked, momentarily distracted.

Peter yawned. “The pretty ones. You always sing Daddy.”

Tony sighed. Squeezing Peter closer, he rested his head against the three year olds and softly sang to him. “Hi there, how are you? It’s been a long time. Seems like we’ve come a long way.” He kissed Peter on the side of the face and Pete hummed in content. “My, but we learn so slow. Heroes, they come and they go. And leave us behind as if we’re supposed to know…”

“Whyyyy,” Peter sang sleepily with him.

“Why do we give up our hearts to the past? Why must you grow up so fast?” Tony hummed the next bars of the song, raising his head slightly to look at Peter. Steve glanced over too; Peter was definitely asleep. 

Tony continued to hum the song, as he carefully cradled Peter’s head. He tried to raise Peter’s head enough so that he could slip his arm out; he had almost succeeded but Peter’s head tipped to the side and he jolted, waking up. The toddler’s face puckered as though he was deciding whether or not to throw a fit. Tony quickly started singing again. “When the storybook comes to a close, gone are the ribbons and bows. Things to remember… Places to go…Pretty maids all in a row.” Peter’s features smoothed out again.

They both released a breath. “We’re stuck here until he drops into a deeper sleep,” Tony breathed quietly. Steve made a minute nod.

“You used to sing him Eagles songs?”

“I’m not a traditional lullaby kind of guy,” Tony shot back. “Wasn’t a traditional kind of dad.”

It was an oddly intimate moment, Steve realized. They didn’t dare move for fear of waking Peter; Steve was starting to regret laying down on the bed. He thought he may have pushed the boundaries too much. He should tell Tony about what their SHIELD agents had told him… Tony would want to know... He looked over at the engineer. Said engineer was watching Peter’s face as he slept, gazing at him with such attention, Steve thought he might be trying to memorize the boy’s features. He should wait, he decided. Tony wouldn’t sleep if he told him what they’d found...


	4. We Learn So Slow

Steve woke in the middle of the night, disoriented but comfortable. He could tell he wasn’t in his bedroom. His surroundings unfamiliar, it took him a few slow minutes to place himself in Peter’s room, Tony and Peter beside him, so close in fact that he could feel Peter’s soft breaths on his arm. Someone had covered him with a blanket. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep...

On the other side of the bed, Tony was curled protectively around the toddler. By the dim light of the moon outside, Steve could see that Peter was holding Tony’s arm in place with both of his hands.

Steve knew he should get up and go to his own bed, but he still felt incredibly groggy and he was too comfortable to move. Tony would probably tease him if he was still here in the morning… but then who could have put the blanket over him but Tony? Steve rolled over on his side. He didn’t mind Tony’s teasing actually. Now, if he could get out of the room before the other Avengers saw... He closed his eyes and, listening to the other two breathe in tandem, drifted back to sleep.

The next time he woke up, it was half past 8 and sunlight was streaming into the room. He could hear giggling and the sound of someone else gently shushing. Groaning, he opened his eyes and gazed towards the source of the noises.

“Morning, sunshine,” Tony quipped.

Captain blinked at him. The inventor looked as flawless as he ever did, all traces of last night gone. Tony seemed to know what he was thinking; he smirked and wandered into Steve’s line of sight. He had a button down shirt with a vest thrown over it and his hair had been carefully styled. Last night, Tony’s hair had been ruffled and Steve could swear that he had drooled on the pillow.

Shifting, Steve wondered how Tony always managed to look put together when he knew the man behind the mask was anything but. He cast around for something to say. “Did you put the blanket over me?” Tony nodded, not really looking him in the eyes now. “Oh. Thanks. But you could have kicked me out, you know?”

“But you’re our friend,” Peter told him, crab walking across the bed. He looked at Steve upside down and then collapsed in a heap. “Right, Daddy?”

“That’s right. And we sleep with our friends,” Tony deadpanned. Steve blushed.

“A+ parenting Tony.” He reluctantly sat up. “Thanks for the blanket though.”

“We can’t keep defrosting you, Cap.”

In spite of himself, Steve laughed at that. “What are you doing?”

“May’s crazy. I was just going to get Peter dressed for the day but now we’re sorting through all the clothes she got him.” He gestured at the unoccupied side of the bed. Tony hadn’t been kidding; there were piles of clothes. Tony grabbed a pair of scissors off the bedside table by Steve and flipped them in his hand. 

“I’m helping.” Peter told him, not seeming to notice that he had just knocked an entire stack of shirts off the bed. Tony scooped them up again and dumped them back on the bed.

Steve nodded. “You’re doing a great job.”

Peter swiveled to look at Tony. “What do you think?”

Tony was surprisingly sincere. “Yeah, mimmo, you’re a big help. I love you. You know that.”

“Yeah!” Peter threw his arms around Tony’s middle. “Daddy, what are we going to do today?”

“Well, we’re going to have breakfast, if I can get you dressed. And then you’re going to spend some time with Aunt May and Happy, okay? Daddy has to talk to his friends.” He glanced over Peter’s head to where Steve was sitting. “Steve had something to talk to me about last night but he fell asleep.”

Steve leaned on his fist and nodded tiredly. “I should shower and shave,” he yawned. Tony hummed.

“Why are you so tired Cap? Didn’t sleep after all?” He stabilized Peter, who was pulling off his pajamas. He held up a shirt. It had dino bones on it. Peter roared- actually roared- which oddly enough seemed to be a reaction Tony understood. He handed over the shirt, watching Peter try to wrestle his way into it.

Steve sighed. “Woke up in the middle of the night. Didn’t know where I was.”

“Would you prefer I carry you back to your bed next time we fall asleep talking?” Tony quipped. “I’m flattered that you think I can lift you.” He tugged the shirt into place. Peter had managed to pin one arm inside the shirt and Tony pulled this through the sleeve. Peter rolled onto his back and waved his feet in the air. “What, would you like help?”

Peter kicked out his feet and made another prehistoric noise. Tony slipped a pair of jeans onto the toddler and tickled his sides. He beamed, a sure sign that he wasn’t paying attention to the other superhero being in the room.

Steve reluctantly slid out of bed and padded off down the hall for a much needed shower and shave. He didn’t normally sleep this late and he felt groggy. He hadn’t wanted to talk to Tony about the HYDRA base last night and he didn’t want to talk about it this morning, but he knew he couldn’t avoid it forever. But Tony… Steve never wanted to make Tony worry more than he already did. Especially when it came to Peter…

By the time Steve got to the kitchen, the others had already gathered and were partway through the meal. He piled his plate up and slid between Tony and Natasha. May had Peter situated in her lap. He chattered animatedly, telling her about his superhero figures, and spilled eggs down his shirt. Tony ‘snuck’ him extra slices of bacon. The small Stark family seemed to be negotiating. Peter puffed out his chest. “I can stay with you.”

“It would be boring,” Tony whispered conspiratorially. He leaned on one hand. “I wish I could go with you and May.”

“But I want to be with you,” Peter whined.

Tony kissed his hands. “I thought you loved May? You’re going to make her think you don’t want to be with her,” he whispered.

Peter pulled in his lip as he mulled this over. Standing him on his feet, May bounced him gently. “We’ll do something fun and then you’ll get to see Dad in the afternoon.” She tickled him and he laughed. “Okay?” He nodded, but his dark eyes lingered on Tony’s face.

May handed Peter over as she got up. She began to gather items into her bag. “He’s not going to want to eat lunch, Tony,” she called over to him. “Not if you keep stuffing him with bacon.” Setting her bag aside, she came back over and leaned over his shoulders.

“He’ll burn it all off keeping you and Happy busy.” Tony kissed her on the cheek. He cocked his eyebrow at her. “Love you.”

She sighed, sounding long suffering, but kissed the top of his head nonetheless. “Love you too. Come on Peter.” She scooped her nephew up and, as a last thought, mussed Tony’s hair.

“Hey!” he shouted at her, but she didn’t turn around. Steve could hear her and Peter laughing the entire way down the hallway. “Actually,” Tony said, looking in his phone for a mirror, “it looks pretty good like this too.” Steve scoffed midbite and ended up choking on his eggs. 

It was midmorning before they finished breakfast and cleared up. The others had scattered throughout the quiet compound and had to be called back. Steve could tell Tony was nervous by the way his fingers compulsively moved across the tabletop, but the engineer otherwise looked undisturbed, bored even. 

The others gathered around the table. Natasha took the lead. “FRIDAY, pull up the data from yesterday’s call.”

A holograph began to load in midair. Natasha began the briefing. “We were called in to investigate a suspected HYDRA base following the disappearance of four children from the neighboring village of Wheldrake, but what we didn’t know at the time was that seven adults of varying ages and genders had also gone missing from three other localities prior to the disappearance of the children.” 

“How on earth did the authorities miss that?” Tony said tensely, leaning forward.

Steve gripped his hand. “They took people that would go unnoticed. An elderly woman, two prostitutes, a disabled man living alone, a recent immigrant with no connections…” Tony swore.

“Why though?” Bruce asked, closing his eyes. “Why take an elderly woman or the disabled man?”

“They seem to have been doing experiments on them,” Natasha explained, a visible distast on her face. She swiped away the IDs of the missing persons and pulled up what appeared to be pictures of detailed notes. 

They watched in silence as segments of interviews done with the few scientists that had been captured played in front of them. The scientists had been cut off from each other, each focused on specific processes and forbidden to talk to the others. HYDRA recruited from the fringes. A common underlying theme seemed to be rejection and the perceived undervaluation on the part of these scientists, gathered from different parts of the world.

Steve, who had not watched these interviews the night before, was particularly revolted by the team of scientists working on a new formula of super serum. The head scientists, a woman with dark hair and heavy lidded eyes, described the failed attempts to create the perfect formula with a detached, almost bored, ease. He ran his hand over the injection scars on his arms, feeling an echo of the fear he’d felt almost 80 years before.

From the interviews, they went through what had been found in each room of the base, cataloguing experiments, notes, and machinery alike. Steve could feel Tony’s impatience bleeding through; they’d already spent hours pouring over material. He looked beside him. Tony’s eyes were locked on one of the rooms at the east side of the top of the building, the room where Steve had found Peter yesterday. Already, it seemed like weeks had passed.

Natasha must have sensed Tony’s impatience too. She looked at the engineer. “Tony, I’ve been reading these notes. They refer to a machine that can cause time to move through a person’s body…”

“... causing them to be younger than they should be?” he finished, his face mask like.

Sam leaned forward. “They created time travel?” 

“We asked that, but the head scientist was very insistent that it was different from time travel. They were de-aging these people on a molecular level… I don’t really know. Tony, Bruce? You’re our science people.”

Tony looked over at Bruce, then leaned forward. “I’m an engineer, not a science fiction writer. People shouldn’t be fucked with like this.”

Bruce rubbed at his temples. “Tony and I obviously want to take a look at the machine they used, but that’s not his specialty. It’s certainly not mine.”

There was a moment of silence. “I might actually know a guy,” Sam said, surprising them all. “Over on the West Coast. He’s… Well, I think he’s fucking annoying, but apparently he’s some kind of genius.” He detailed what he had learned of Pym’s protege since the break in from the previous year.

“Fine,” Tony said. “Sounds weird. Can’t hurt. I’m willing to try just about fucking anything at this point.”

“Uh, one problem though, Stark.” Sam sighed and stared Tony down, who had lifted an eyebrow at him. “He’s under house arrest.”

“Pardon me?” Tony cleared out his ear with an exaggerated motion. “I’m supposed to trust a genius criminal who runs around with bugs to change my son back into a teenager? That’s the best you have to offer me?”

“Dude, I’m trying my best,” Sam said, spreading his hands.

“Tony,” Steve said quietly. He’d been listening to the conversation and felt that it was now getting off track. Much as he was dreading continuing the conversation when Tony was already so heightened, he didn’t want to linger over smaller details.

Tony swallowed with visible discomfort. “He’s my baby, I keep him safe.” He grabbed a pen from his pocket and scribbled a circle on the papers in front of him. Tracking his progress with each broad sweep, he tried for a light tone. “This machine of theirs only goes in one direction? How hard could it be to reverse the process?”

“SHIELD interrogated the scientists on that point last night. They claim they only created it to de-age subjects because they wanted young…” Natasha struggled to find the right words. “They wanted the subjects to be young when they experimented on them. They initially chose adults and de-aged them because they were less likely to attract attention. Apparently, their experiments weren’t working. They decided to start using actual kids. Tony, I don’t like it either.”

“They needed kids to do what?” Tony said sharply. Across the table from him, Bruce pushed back his seat and mumbled about needing to leave.

Steve pulled Tony’s seat forcibly to the side so that he could look the engineer in the eyes. “They were trying to create super soldiers, Tony. Like me. But they haven’t had the right formula. It overwhelmed the adult bodies. They spent a couple of months working on the machine that changed Peter… tried again. They thought that kids’ bodies would be stronger.”

“When that didn’t work, they started kidnapping actual children Tony,” Natasha finished.

“And they haven’t found where the kids are being kept yet?” Sam asked. Natasha and Steve looked at each other. “What?” Sam asked sharply. He looked at both of them.

“Ground penetrating radar picked up eleven signatures in the field behind the base. Shallow graves… There were no survivors.”

Tony got up quickly and bolted from the room. Steve took off behind him. The engineer made it partially down the hallway before collapsing; he vomited, emptying his stomach on the floor beneath him. Sick splashed up in flecks on his suit. Steve grabbed him around the shoulders and held him up until it seemed like Tony’s nausea had passed; he allowed the man to finish dry heaving before he pulled him abruptly to his feet.

“Tony?” Steve could hear the other man’s heart racing. “Hey, no Tony, everything’s going to be okay. You hear me?” He held Tony’s hand over where his heart was, willing his own heart to be calm. “Feel that? I need you to breathe with me.”

“Kids. I-” Tony gasped. “I can’t stand it when they- fucking- hurt-”

“I know Tony, I know.” Steve squeezed the back of Tony’s neck. “Me either. But they’re not going to hurt Peter.”

Tony’s eyes found his. “I need to get out of here,” he said. He took off, almost stepped in the vomit, and looked up at Steve desperately.

Steve pushed him towards the elevator. “We’ll clean it up later. Come on.” He half dragged Tony to the elevator. Tony jammed the button several times and then couldn’t wait for it any longer. He reeled off towards the stairs, unbuttoning his shirt around his neck.

Breaking out from the cool atmosphere of the compound to the outside world, Steve finally understood where Tony was heading. The playground area they’d installed for SHIELD’s families loomed in the distance. Steve could hear the pretty tinkling noise of May’s laughter as she joked with Happy. He fell inside beside Tony, grateful for the cool breeze that swept over them.

May glanced over in their direction and realizing who it was walking her way, raised her hand in a wave. Something must have shown by the way Tony was moving; she froze and then began walking in their direction. “Tony, what on earth is wrong?”

Tony staggered down onto a bench, grabbing her hand like it was his lifeline. “May, they were killing them. Those kids,” he choked out.

“What?” She wrapped her arms around him, smoothing his hair down. She shushed him. “Steve, is Peter in danger?” she whispered.

Steve grabbed Tony’s hand, easing down onto his other side. “We don't think so,” he said. She sagged in relief. “But May. We don’t know how to change him back.”

They looked over to where Peter was chasing Happy across a suspension bridge. “We’ll figure it out,” she said firmly. In that moment, Steve realized why May was Tony’s anchor. She swept her hair to the side and pulled Tony closer. “I know you’ll fix this Tony. Otherwise, I’d have to kill you.” He gave a wet laugh. “Tony, you smell like vomit.”


	5. Heroes They Come and They Go

May produced some tissues from her purse and, ignoring Tony’s protests, cleaned the flecks of sick off of him. “There’s gum in here somewhere. Find it,” she ordered, thrusting the purse into his arms. He gave her a look but began to dig through the bag. While she worked, they gave her an update on what they’d learned. “Well, I don’t blame you for being sick about this Tony,” she said finally, “but it does sound like you intervened before it could get any worse.”

“There’s missing scientists,” he said automatically. “They’ve got to be out there somewhere else, continuing what they started at this one.” He chewed his gum absently, his eyes watching Peter chasing after Happy.

She nodded, the creases between her eyes prominent as a result of her frown. “Be that as it may, right now all that matters is getting Peter back to himself. Not that I don’t enjoy spending time with him again like this,” she gestured, “but it is disrupting his normal life. I’m sure our teenager won’t be too happy when he finds out what’s been happening.”

“Mmm, probably not.” Tony rubbed his face roughly. “Do you really think we’ll get this sorted out? We have zero experience with human temporal manipulation or whatever it is that we’re planning on calling this bullshit.”

Steve was about to answer when May made a slicing motion with her hand. Looking up, they saw Peter running towards them. “Daddy! Did you come to play finally?” He scrambled into Tony’s lap.

“Absolutely, I did.” Tony caught him under the armpits and getting to his feet, swung Peter comically in the air. He twirled easily in wide circles, making Peter scream with laughter, and moved gradually and deliberately to the play space. When he stepped onto the mulch, he abruptly pulled the toddler in for a hug. From where Steve and May sat, they could hear Peter giggling uncontrollably.

Peter whispered something in Tony’s ear. Tony was listening carefully.

“Can you hear what they’re plotting?” May asked him.

Steve nodded, the corner of his mouth tugging up. “You’ll like this. Let’s get closer.” He helped her to her feet.

They walked slowly towards the play area. Tony had set Peter on the ground and he was scrambling to hide behind a line of oversized tires that had been half buried in the sand. He began to crawl through them, flicking a glance over to where Tony was standing all the while. 

Tony gave him a half a minute’s head start and then he crouched down and climbed under the play structure, half crawling under the bridge. Emerging from below the bridge, he began to step with exaggerated goose steps towards where his head of security was standing.

“Oh no, they’re not going to-,” May whispered, finally realizing what they’d been working towards.

Peter let out a loud squeal of laughter; he clearly had been watching Tony too closely to properly conceal himself. Happy looked up from where he’d been typing into his phone. “Petey? What’s so funny?” As he turned to look at the toddler, Tony threw caution to the wind and tackled Happy. The ex-boxer made one undignified squawk as they both crashed to the ground.

“Happy!” Tony shouted.

“Oh god.” Happy pushed Tony off of him. Peter laughed until he fell over. “Getting too old for this, boss.”

“Sorry, Hap. Oof.” Tony grunted as Peter threw his full weight onto him. He lifted the toddler up so that he could pretend he was flying. “If it makes you feel better,” he mused. “I think I’m also too old to have a toddler.” He added a few more “swoops” and lowered Peter back to his chest. Peter allowed being held for only a moment before he struggled out of Tony’s arms.

He ran over to where Steve stood with May. “Play with me,” he begged. “Daddy’s acting all old.”

Happy helped Tony to his feet. “You hear that?”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Maybe it was Peter’s comments on him being old or maybe it was his early panic attack, but Tony seemed determined to make the most of the afternoon. Peter seemed to simultaneously want to hide out of sight and to keep Tony in his sights at all times. Tony ducked under the bridges and climbed up narrow steps to keep him guessing.

Captain stepped next to Happy and May; they watched Tony go down the tallest slide with Peter in his lap. “Taking pictures?”

“Updating my blackmail material,” she said cheerfully.

Steve hummed with laughter. “For Peter or Tony?” ‘Both,’ she mouthed to him. “Tony, you don’t really fit,” he called. The engineer seemed to be having a terrible time going around the corners of the slide. When he finally got to the bottom, he lay on the slide, looking up into the sun. Steve helped Peter climb down.

Tony peered at him from where he lay. “Your turn, Capsicle.” He nudged Peter. “Go. Be free.”

Peter slid onto the mulch. “Steve? Can you go down the slide with me?”

Steve squatted down so he could look him in the eye. “I’d like that,” he agreed. He was surprised when Peter took his hand but felt his heart warm up. Peter only let go so that he could work his way up the various ladders and passageways. He led him to a double slide. “Want to race each other?” he asked the toddler, who nodded, seeming pleased that Steve had caught on so quickly. “Okay.”

Peter zoomed down whereas Steve got stuck, his bulky muscles counteracting his weight advantage. Tony had caught Peter when he zipped down; he tucked Peter into his side and reaching up, began to tug on Steve’s foot, pulling him down. The Captain couldn’t stop laughing; he did nothing to help as Tony tried to pull him free.

“Play nice, guys,” May quipped, taking Peter out of Tony’s arms. “There’s a kid present.”

“Hear that? May doesn’t want me tugging on you,” Tony murmured.

“Not in public. Come on Pete. You’re looking tired.”

Steve bumped shoulders with Tony as they followed May, Happy, and Peter towards the residential building. “You’re terrible, Tony.”

“I’m comfortable in my masculinity, that’s all.” Tony examined his fingernails.

Steve was happy to banter with Tony if it kept him from focusing on all the bad news they had heard this morning. He thought that playing with Peter had helped him more than anything they could have done for the engineer, but now as the elevator began to ascend to their floor, he thought he could see some of the lost quality come back to Tony’s eyes.

May must have been watching Tony too. She dumped Peter in his arms. Peter was much quieter than he had been outside; he looked like he was falling asleep. “Daniel’s traveling tonight on a plane,” Tony sang into his ear. “I can see the red tail lights, heading for Spain…” He ran his fingers through Peter’s hair, smoothing his curls.

He swayed back and forth. “Think we’re too late for him to nap?” he asked May, looking at his watch.

She held his arm up so that she could see it too. “I think we’re pushing it. But the alternative is worse.” She sighed. “Tony, I’m going to have to go back to work. They’re short staffed as it is…”

They all stepped out into the common area. Steve could see Sam talking to someone he didn’t recognize, a man a little older than him with dark brown hair. He stepped away from the Starks. His enhanced hearing could pick up their conversation and snippets of whatever Sam and this new guy was talking about. He blinked. It was too much sometimes... 

He stepped over to the other side of the room. Sam looked up. “Dude, is he alright?”

“He’s still a bit stressed, but better.” Steve stuck out his hand to the newcomer. “Steve Rogers.”

“Oh.” The guy jumped to his feet. “Scott. Lange. Scott Lange. Just got here.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked over at Sam.

“Try not to steal anything this time,” Sam told him. He looked at Steve. “Nat and Banner are down in the common lab. The team on the ground at the HYDRA base sent over the contents of the room where you found the kid. Want to take a look?”

Steve nodded. He turned to see where Tony was and got a shock; the engineer had come over to where they were standing and was listening closely. “Jesus, Tony. Don’t do that,” he whispered. He gestured to Scott Lang. “This is-”

“Arachni-kid? Stuart Little?” Tony guessed, seeming to size Scott up. “How old are you? 23?”

Scott squinted at him. “I’m like two years younger than you.”

“In what? Dog years?”

“Tony.” Steve cut him off before he could get going, musing internally that all of Tony’s defense mechanisms weren’t exactly helpful when time was of the essence.

Tony looked down at Peter who had fallen asleep in his arms. He rocked him gently. “This is supposed to be a teenager,” he explained to Scott. “It’s not that I don’t like being able to hold my kid so much, it’s just that I probably shouldn’t be able to at this point.”

Despite his initial awkwardness and clear provocation from Tony, the West Coast genius didn’t seem overly perturbed by anything. “Let’s take a look at the machine,” he offered.

Tony gave a funny jerk and spun on his heel. He led the way down to the lab where Natasha and Bruce were working. Steve was expecting more of his bombast, particularly given that he was their resident engineer, but Tony was markedly subdued. He listened to the others, but hung off to the side, leaning on a holograph table and watching Peter sleep.

It was only when they mentioned recovering camera footage that he seemed to come awake again. Stepping closer to the monitor he watched in silence as they played back footage of the fight through the base. They isolated the cameras that Peter appeared in. Peter moved with an easy grace that the others had never possessed. They watched as he webbed two scientists together and then flipped onto the ceiling.

“How is he doing that?” Steve heard Scott mumble, but nobody answered him.

“This is the closest frame we’ve got to explaining what happened,” Natasha said minutes later. They watched as a scientist using Chitauri tech blasted Tony down a flight of stairs. Peter took one look at what happened and surged forward. He was able to disarm the scientist, but not capture him before the man took off. Other HYDRA agents rushed to fight off Spiderman.

Tony’s jaw clenched when three scientists hit Peter with some sort of repulsor technology. He fell back, getting knocked against the wall. “Stand down, kid,” Tony whispered.

“That must be how he got that bruise,” Bruce observed.

Spiderman slumped forward and the scientists grabbed him; he seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the blast. They watched in silence as the scientists dragged him through different camera views. The last camera image they had showed them bringing Peter into the corner laboratory. There didn’t seem to be a camera in that particular room, but the hall footage showed a flash of green light and then there was no activity. The minutes dragged by without them being able to see what was happening in the room.

Minutes passed and suddenly the scientists ran out of the room. “That must have been when Bruce and I broke through the enforced doorway,” Nat mused. “There you are Steve.”

They watched as Steve ran down the hallway, searching rooms quickly before finally finding Peter. Iron Man followed shortly after. The video cut out.

“Doesn’t really help with knowing how the machine works or what they did,” Bruce muttered. Next to him, Scott was talking to himself and jotting notes on a pad of paper he had pulled from his back pocket.

“I work best alone.” Tony turned on his heel before they could say anything else. He stepped into the elevator and didn’t turn until the door closed. Steve made to follow him, but Nat put her hand on his arm.

“Better give him some space. Not too much space, but some.”

Steve nodded reluctantly. They began to problem solve together while it got dark outside.

Hours later, after many scrapped ideas and experiments, Steve decided that he should find what happened to Tony. He looked in Tony’s lab first, but knowing that Peter was with him, guessed correctly that the engineer would keep a semi-normal routine if only for his child. 

He made his way up to Tony’s personal wing of the building. There was evidence of dinner items still on the table and toys scattered all across the living room. It looked like Peter had found all the toys that Happy and May had procured. He stepped over a Lego duplo creation and not seeing any sign of either of them, made his way to Peter’s room. The door was open and he stuck his head around it. “Tony?”

The engineer was perched on the side of Peter’s bed. Peter seemed to be sprawled out and sleeping peacefully. Tony’s head was in his hands. Steve pushed into the room. “They were going to use him, Cap.” Tony grimaced, rubbing his left arm. 

Steve took a step closer, concerned. “Tony…”

Only then did Tony look up into his face, the engineer’s eyes glassy as though he was looking at something very far in the distance; only when Tony seemed to realize that Steve was looking him in the eye did he close them. The hero took three shallow breaths and opened his eyes again; some of the vagueness had faded but he still looked lost. “I’m okay, Cap. Everything’s fine.”

“You’re not okay,” Steve interrupted and Tony scoffed. “No one would be okay after the past couple of days that you’ve had. And Tony… you had a panic attack this afternoon. Did it ever stop?”

“I don’t have panic attacks the way I used to. I got it under control.” He coughed slightly. “I’m just thinking of…” He trailed off.

“You don’t always have to do that, you know.”

Tony rolled his head on his shoulders experimentally. “Do what? Listen,” he said, interrupting Steve before he could say anything. “I just had a moment. Sometimes I let myself…”

Steve closed the distance before Tony could blame himself for another thing. Wrapping his arms around the slightly shorter man, he pulled him into the fiercest hug he could muster. “Everything’s going to be okay, Tony,” he mumbled into the engineer’s shoulder. “Let me help you. You’re my friend.”

Tony floundered in his grasp. He touched Steve’s shoulder gently, trailing his fingers as if unsure what to do and Steve realized that besides May and Peter, he had never seen Tony accept physical affection from others. Tony let a shaky breath out before wrapping his arm around Steve’s shoulder. “This isn’t a panic attack,” he said. He squeezed the blonde superhero’s shoulder. “It’s panic, but not an attack. Sometimes it just... lingers.”

Steve let him go so that he could see Tony’s face when the other man spoke. “I’m anxious a lot too,” he offered. “People like us, we just learn how to manage it. Not get rid of it, you know?”

“Can you-,” Tony blew out a breath, sounding like what he was about to ask was costing him something. “Can you stay tonight? I feel like Pete’s safer with you in the room.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” Steve studied Tony. There was no one who would fight harder than Tony to keep Peter safe, so the request for the Captain to stay with them didn’t make sense at face value, but he couldn’t figure out what Tony’s ulterior motive would be. “You’re not going anywhere…”

“No. I can’t leave him. I just…” Tony clawed at his jawline. “I was just thinking. One time I called a suit in my sleep… Hasn’t happened in years. But since I’m… panicky,” he admitted with difficulty. “I’d feel better having you here, that’s all.”

Steve nodded. “Okay.”


	6. And Leave Us Behind

Steve knew he had set his alarm for his 5:00 morning run so it didn’t make sense when he woke to a sun filled room. The bed beside him was empty. “FRIDAY? What time is it?”

“Good morning, Captain Rogers. It is currently 8:47am.”

He groaned. “I set an alarm,” he mumbled.

“Boss turned off your alarm,” she provided helpfully.

“Why?” Apparently Tony had fixed her algorithm for rhetorical questions though because the A.I. was silent. “FRIDAY, where is Tony?”

“Boss took Peter with him to take a shower.”

“Oh.” Focusing on his hearing, he realized he could make out the sounds of Tony singing a Queen song over the sounds of running water. He could hear Peter joining in, although he was mostly enthusiastically mumbling the words. Now that he knew to listen for the sounds, he didn’t know how he could miss it. “Why is it so quiet in here?”

“Boss installed sensory dampening technology after Peter was bit by a radioactive spider,” Friday supplied.

‘Oh,’ Steve thought. That made sense. He had forgotten that Peter also normally had heightened senses. He heard the water turn off and slumped back down on the bed. Though he didn’t want to admit it, he liked that Tony let him be a part of taking care of Peter; it made him feel like he was a part of a family, something he hadn’t felt for years.

“Morning, sunshine,” Tony quipped, coming out of the bathroom in a wave of steam. He had Peter wrapped in a towel and he dumped the toddler in a heap on top of Steve. “Help me with this, Spangles.”

“Morning, Steve,” Peter chirped, sitting on his stomach.

“Hi, Petey.” Steve sat up with a groan. “Were you singing with your Daddy?”

Tony stood up and banged his head on a shelf. “How could you possibly hear tha- oh, god your super hearing.”

“Did you forget?” Steve winked at the toddler, beginning to dry off his hair. “Bet you have super hearing, don’t you?” Peter nodded solemnly. “What other superpowers do you have?”

Peter hummed and looked around the room for inspiration. “I’m super strong,” he said seriously, flexing his arm muscles. “I can fly… and… I’m smarter than Daddy.”

Tony pushed Steve’s foot aside and sat behind Peter. “Wow, smarter than Daddy, huh?” He tickled Peter. “Yes, I forgot that you have super hearing,” he added.

“Me?” Peter asked, looking up at Tony.

“Yes, exactly. I forgot that you, my bambino, have super hearing.” Sliding him out of Steve’s lap, he began to dry Peter off the rest of the way. Peter lifted his limbs lazily, letting Tony do all the work. Tony slid a pair of briefs on and then stood him up. “Your turn. Let’s see how well you can put those pants on.”

Peter hopped around on the bed, his tongue between his teeth with concentration. “Like this?” he put his leg through one pant leg.

“That’s good form, except you’ve got them backwards. Remember the tag goes in the back?” Tony cocked his eyebrow at Steve. “Sleep well, Cap?”

“Okay,” Steve said distractedly. Peter was awfully close to the edge of the bed. He gestured at the toddler and Tony grabbed him deftly and pulled him back towards the center of the bed. “FRIDAY said you turned off my alarm, why?”

“Petey, sit down. Try bunching the pant leg up and putting your foot through. Like that, yeah. Good job. Now the other one.” Tony glanced back at Steve. “You didn’t fall asleep until 3 in the morning, were you really going to go run after two hours of sleep?”

“I-how do you know that?”

“Boss didn’t sleep last night,” FRIDAY chirped, sounding disapproving. Steve was caught somewhere between amazement that Tony could make an AI which was fully capable of criticizing him and his own disapproval that Tony hadn’t slept.

“Tony, you didn’t sleep? That’s-”

“I did what you said! Now what?”

“Now stand up.” Tony pulled Peter to his feet. “Pull your pants up. Come on kiddo, this is how vicious rumors start.” Peter laughed. 

While Tony tried to teach the over excited toddler how to put a shirt on, Steve studied the engineer. In a complete 180 degree flip from the day before, today Tony was wearing black sweatpants and a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and he looked tired, but not nearly as exhausted as he probably should, given that he hadn’t slept the night before. His plaid shirt looked familiar…

“Did you know that Daddy has booboos?” Peter asked Steve, interrupting his thoughts.

Steve blinked. He didn’t know how to answer Peter. If Tony had brought Peter with him to shower, Peter had likely seen the bruises on Tony’s ribs but Steve thought it would likely upset Peter to think that his daddy had been hurt. He looked up at Tony, who was watching the blond superhero. “He thinks the scars from my arc reactor are recent injuries,” Tony explained.

“Oh. I thought the-,” Steve stopped.

“Ribs are looking better,” Tony supplied. He pulled up his t-shirt to show Steve. Better might have been an exaggeration; there was still a mottled bruise running across his midsection. It had faded but not gone away. “Peter’s been fixing my hurt spots.” He pulled the kid to his chest for a hug. Peter hummed and wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck.

Peter ducked under Tony’s arm at last. Half walking, half crawling to the head of the bed, he snagged his super hero toys. “Steve you should kiss Daddy’s booboos so it will feel better.”

The engineer snorted. “Hey, I’d settle for a hug,” Tony said, getting off the bed. “Come on, Pete. Let’s make breakfast.” He boosted the toddler onto the ground and then padded after him when Peter took off at a run.

Steve yawned. Slipping down the hall in the opposite direction from them, he made his way to his bedroom for a shower and to change. He didn’t know how Tony did it. Here he had gotten 5 hours of sleep and he felt jumpy and worn. He knew Tony sometimes went days without sleeping…

He touched Nat’s shoulder gently when he sat beside her at the kitchen table a half hour later. She beamed at him and he felt himself come more awake. “Where’s everyone?”

“That new guy- Scott?- he’s in the lab with Bruce looking over that machine,” she informed him. “They’ve been at it a couple of hours… he said the time difference has been throwing him off. Sam went for a run, I thought. But he should have been back by now.”

She flicked a glance over at Tony. “Want help, Tony?”

“I think we’ve got it just about mixed,” he mused. He was washing Peter’s hands off with a hand towel. They were inexplicably covered with flour. “But since you’re so eager,” he trailed off, picking Peter up under his armpits, “you can hold Peter while I’m cooking.”

“Oh, no Tony, I meant I could help with the cooking,” she protested.

He dumped Peter in her lap and she was forced to settle hands on both sides of Peter as Tony showed no signs of listening to her protests. “Relax, Double Agent, it’s a baby not a bomb.” He squatted down next to her and looked Peter in the eyes, cupping his face. “Play nice Mimmo, with a little luck we’ll get a full time babysitter out of this, huh?”

“I’m always nice,” Peter told him, flopping forward onto Natasha. “You smell good,” he told her unabashedly. She looked over at Steve. ‘What do I do?’ she mouthed at him.

“What have you been making Pete?” he asked.

“Daddy’s making pancakes. I mixed,” he added. Peter was looking at Nat though. Steve wondered if the toddler knew that she was uncomfortable with him; he seemed concerned for her. It seemed like Peter had always been kind. Peter pet the side of her face in an obvious parody of what Tony had just done. “Do you like chocolate chips in your pancakes? Daddy will put them in for you.”

“Will he?” she aimed the last half of the question at Tony. Peter twisted to smile at him.

“If it would please you, Agent Romanoff.”

Tony made them all pancakes, putting chocolate chips in the ones meant for Natasha and Peter. Steve was beginning to wonder if he wasn’t going to get any when Tony handed him a gigantic one that had the vague shape of an American flag with strawberries and blueberries. 

Peter got deposited onto his own chair. He was highly reluctant to use a fork with his pancakes and kept sneaking bites using his hands when he thought they weren’t watching him. Tony leaned on his hand, looking speculatively at the toddler, but seemed to have long since mastered the impulse to react. 

“Going to be lots of laundry in the forecast,” he told Peter seriously when breakfast was over, pulling the now incredibly sticky shirt off. “Aunt Nat’s going to clean off your hands while I get you a new shirt.”

He tossed her a wet towel and scooted out of the room before she had time to protest.

Natasha caught Peter’s arm gently in her hand. “Let’s clean these off so you can play,” she told him. Working carefully, she cleaned each finger then did the other hand.

“Steve slept with me and Daddy last night,” Peter told her.

She paused. “Oh yeah?” Steve wasn’t fooled by her light tone, but Peter didn’t seem to read anything into it. “Why’s that?”

Peter looked at her like she was crazy. “So Daddy could keep him safe too.”

Steve looked over at her. “That’s right,” he said agreeably, beaming at her. They looked up when they heard a scoff. Tony was leaning on the wall; he shook his head a little.

“Let me see those hands,” he said to Peter, leaning over Natasha’s shoulder. He whistled. “Wow. Those are pretty clean.” He handed Peter a new shirt. “Want to show off those shirt wearing skills?”

Peter scrambled into the shirt, frowned at the tag sticking out the front of the shirt and turned it around with difficulty. He held out his hands so that Natasha could see- a cat t-shirt. He scooted impatiently out of the kitchen and over to where he’d been creating a castle like structure with Duplo legos.

“Tony told me he’d like a hug this morning,” Steve told Natasha conspiratorially as they followed Peter into the living room.

“Excuse me, when did I say that?” Tony asked.

“Aw, Tony, I didn’t know you needed a hug,” Nat crooned, throwing her arms around his shoulders. She nuzzled his cheek. Steve could see her smirking.

“Peter wanted me to kiss his booboos,” Steve murmured, grinning at Tony over Natasha’s red hair. He groaned.

The Widow looked alight with humor. “Excuse me, where were you going to get kissed?” She hung off of him with one arm, glancing between the two men with a smile etched on her face.

“You are way too excited about this Agent Romanoff. What’s going in that head of yours?”

“Alright, alright.” Steve worried that the other two heroes’ competitive and casually flirtatious sides would combine badly into something they couldn’t fix. “Pretty sure you have a deficit for normal human contact. I’m going to hug you. Brace yourself.”

“Hands above the waist then, Cap.”

Steve could feel Tony tense again in his embrace, just like the previous night and he thought Natasha must have felt it too because she wrapped her arms around his waist. Tony sighed. The captain would have felt bad about it but he thought that Tony probably needed and deserved more physical affection than he had gotten. He buried his nose into Tony’s shoulder and tightened his hold for a moment, then let Tony go. Peter was always hugging Tony when he was his normal self...

“Oh,” Steve realized. “That’s Peter’s shirt. It smells like him.” He blushed, realizing it probably sounded weird to people who didn’t have heightened senses, but that explained what had been niggling at the back of his mind since he had first seen Tony that day.

Tony shook his head. “No, this is my shirt. He just stole it from me. Still mine,” he said decisively, flicking an invisible piece of lint off the sleeve. He yawned. “Today’s going to be long. I have to figure out…”

“Oh, for god’s sake, Tony. Take a nap.” Natasha pushed Tony towards the couch. “If I can brave babysitting for a couple of hours, you can rest.”


	7. As if We're Supposed to Know Why

Tony slept fitfully through the early afternoon, curling in on himself. Steve couldn’t help but notice the differences between this sleep and how he had been the night before; he wondered if Tony was thinking about Peter or if it was something else. They’d only really begun to notice the symptoms of Tony’s PTSD lately.

Peter had spent the afternoon happily preening under the combined attention of Natasha and Steve. After spending a significant period of time building with his legos, they had taken turns reading to him. Peter liked to sit in the lap of whoever was reading and insisted on turning the pages himself. He babbled about Sophie’s Masterpiece to Natasha when they made him a quick lunch.

Sam looked inclined to laugh at them when he came up after lunch and found Steve carrying Peter on his back throughout the living room, but he shut his mouth with an audible click. One look at the mirth in his dark eyes said he’d be hearing about this later. “How’s it going Sam?” he called, crouching down so that Peter could slide off his back.

“Oh, it’s going man, it’s going. That guy, Scott? I still think he’s a thief, but he’s pretty smart. I kind of like him.” He shook his head mournfully. Sam gestured at Tony, who was curled up under a throw blanket. “You guys poison Stark or something?”

Natasha made an exaggerated glance over at Peter who was pushing a firetruck around; Sam winced. “No, we certainly didn’t.”

“He didn’t sleep last night.”

“Well, he’s not going to be happy if you let him sleep all day.” Sam piled a stack of sandwiches on a plate and snagged a bag of chips from the pantry.

“What about you guys? Are you making any progress?” Natasha leveled him with a scrutinizing glance. She stepped back as Peter zoomed in front of her with his truck.

“Bruce and the other guy took the machine apart and put it back together. They seem to be on another level. Oh, and Stark apparently already went over it himself.” Sam shrugged. “God only knows when. The other two were already looking at it when I came back from my run this morning. He wasn’t there then.”

Steve and Natasha looked at each other after Sam left. “Do you think we should wake him up?” she asked.

He grimaced. “Sam’s probably right that he won’t want to spend the whole afternoon asleep on the couch. But I know that he’s barely slept in the past couple of days… I think we should give it another hour or so at least…”

“Speaking of sleeping,” Natasha mentioned, following Peter’s progress. “Should he take a nap?”

“Probably…”

“Well then, I think I’ve got a way to kill two birds with one stone.” She called the toddler over to her. “Want to help your Daddy?” she asked him. He nodded eagerly. Crouching down, she whispered her plan in his ear. Peter listened thoughtfully, absently twirling a strand of her red hair in his fingers.

“Okay,” he finally agreed.

“What’s the plan?” Steve asked curiously as she picked him up. 

Peter twisted so that he could see the super soldier. “I’m going to make sure Daddy stays asleep by-,” he looked at Natasha.

“Pretending to take a nap yourself,” she supplied. 

“Yeah, that.” He yawned. “Are you going to play with me later?”

“If we have the time,” she offered. Pulling the blanket back from where Tony was covered, she laid Peter down carefully next to him and covered them both again. Tony half woke up, but Peter brushed his fingers through his hair with gentleness they didn’t expect from the toddler and shushed him. Sinking back in, Tony wrapped an arm around Peter and fell back asleep.

They watched them sleep for a few minutes before the creeping sensation of watching their friend sleep became too much and then they made for the elevator. “FRIDAY?” Steve asked as soon as the doors slid shut. “Can you tell us if Peter wakes up before Tony?”

“Of course, Captain Rogers.”

They made their way over to Bruce’s public lab where he and Scott were deep in conversation. “Where’s Sam?” Steve asked, looking around the room.

Bruce looked up from his notes. “Interrogating some of the scientists that were captured in the raid. Tony’s not here?”

“Sleeping,” Steve explained. He glanced out the floor to ceiling window on the far end of the lab. The sky was darkening rapidly; he frowned. “Have you made progress with this machine?”

“We tested it on some lab rats,” Bruce said quietly. “It reduced their age significantly, just like with Peter.”

“How is it operated?” Natasha asked, sitting beside Scott at the table.

They illustrated in brief terms how the machine had to be set up and what was input into the machine. Bruce produced a manual that Sam had found while searching through the contents of the desk; it was written in a language Steve didn’t recognize. “Do you know what this is written in?” he asked Natasha quietly.

She traced her fingers over the writing. “It appears to be Dari. I have some background. Tony actually knows Dari well too.” She looked up at the two scientists. “From what you’re saying, there seems to be little chance that Peter was de-aged by accident or in a struggle.”

“Almost no chance,” Bruce commented. “When we did our experiment, it took almost five minutes for the transformation to be complete. We think that you and Tony interrupted them before they were able to finish.” He looked over at Steve.

“They were going to take him.”

“Doubtless it would have been easier to smuggle an ordinary toddler than a superpowered teenager,” Bruce said drily. “I tested Peter when we checked him out the first day. He doesn’t have any of his super powers.”

“Will he be able to get them back if we can reverse this?” Natasha asked sharply.

Scott grimaced. “We’re not sure.”

They were quiet. Steve caught Natasha's eye and knew what she was thinking. Peter loved being Spiderman. And after all he’d been through, how could he adjust to being a normal teenager again? Steve couldn’t fathom returning to his pre-serum self. They had to fix this.

FRIDAY passed a message on from Tony after several hours had passed. They headed back upstairs, joined by Sam who looked frustrated and made their way up through the private elevator. 

Tony was in the kitchen and seemed to be making dinner when they arrived. Peter was strapped into his booster seat and had Tony’s phone in his hands; he was facetiming May who seemed to be telling a funny story, or else, Peter was just an easily amused child. He roared with laughter in a way that only toddlers seemed to be able to. 

Over dinner, Tony explained that after he had woken up, he had spent the afternoon parsing through as many articles on biogerontology as he’d been able to find. They tried to update Tony on what they’d been discussing in the lab, but Peter, who seemed to neither understand nor appreciate their current topic, kept loudly interrupting the group with dinosaur shrieks and overbearing sighs.

It was decided that they would run through the actual updates after Peter had been put to bed when the toddler flung a meatball in the air, seemingly at anyone who cared to watch. With reflexes Steve wasn’t expecting of him, Tony had grabbed the meatball out of the air and dropped it on his plate. He refused to give it back to Peter, who burst into tears.

“Not the end of the world,” Tony explained, wiping tomato sauce off his hands with his napkin.

Outside, it began to rain in torrents. Steve could hear the wind whipping through the surrounding forest. The stormy weather seemed to be matched by Tony’s general disposition tonight; if anything, he looked even more tired than before they had ordered him to sleep. He pushed his food moodily around his plate, but didn’t eat much. Peter, by contrast, soon seemed to cheer up with the combined attention of everyone around the table.

Peter forgave Tony entirely for the meatball incident when the engineer brought him a bowl of ice cream. He giggled when he noticed Tony making a begging expression at him and clumsily fed him a spoonful of ice cream. Tony genuinely laughed when Peter smacked him in the nose with a second spoonful. Scooting his chair closer to the booster seat, he threw his arm around Peter’s shoulders. 

They made plans to gather in the common area at 9 and gradually some of the others began to drift off towards their rooms and other parts of the compound, until it was just the two Starks, Steve at the sink, and Scott, who seemed to be typing out a long text message on his phone.

“Come on, bubba. Let’s get you ready for bed.” Tony scooped Peter out of his booster seat.

“Too early,” Peter whined. He stuck his lip out.

“Petey, you were falling asleep in your pasta,” Tony pointed out. He ran his fingers through the toddler’s brown curls and swayed. “Want to listen to some music?”

He shook his head, hiding his face in the engineer’s neck. Tony sighed. “No music, huh? Well, how about we carry the dishes over to Steve at least.” He grabbed Peter’s plate and stacked it on his own. Bouncing Peter on his hip, he brought the two plates over to where Steve was working on the dishes.

“Want help?” Scott offered.

Tony eyed him critically. “Any experience with fussy toddlers?”

“Of course, I’ve got a daughter.” Scott indicated the text conversation he’d been writing and set his phone aside. He held out his hands and Tony reluctantly let him take Peter. Tony went on collecting plates from the table.

When the billionaire was finished clearing the table, he began to dry the dishes that Cap passed him. They both looked around when they heard Peter laugh; Scott was showing him magic tricks and Peter was so enthralled, he seemed to forget that he had been grumpy. “How’s he doing that?” Tony asked indignantly.

“The magic tricks?” Steve asked innocently. Tony shot him a look. “Well… didn’t he say his daughter is like 7? Maybe you’re just out of shape.”

“Now you’re besmirching my physique?”

Steve squirted him with the sink sprayer, fighting the urge to laugh when Tony sputtered in mock indignation. “You know what I mean. Out of practice. You haven’t had a toddler in over a decade. Don’t read too much into it.”

Tony softened. “Maybe… I just-,” he began to say, but fell silent when Scott walked over.

“Alright. Here’s Dad.”

Peter nestled into Tony’s arms, leaning into his touch. “Scott teached me tricks, Daddy,” he murmured sleepily.

Tony nodded. “That was nice of him,” he offered, glancing over the toddler’s shoulder at the other brunette. Scott half smiled and shrugged. He held out a hand. Peter low-fived him. “You were saying you had an update about the HYDRA machinery?”

“Yep. We can tell you about it after he goes to bed. I’m,” he yawned. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“I have an update too,” Tony called at his retreating back.

“Do you?” Steve asked, having forgotten that Sam had mentioned something about this that afternoon. Tony motioned for Steve to follow him and began walking down the hall to Peter’s room. He nodded. “Tony, why didn’t you sleep last night?”

“Couldn’t sleep. Too many thought spirals,” Tony remarked. He slid Peter into Steve’s arms and then began to dig through the drawer where he’d put all of the toddler clothing. He showed Peter the footed pajamas he’d pulled out, with a bear on the front. “Aunt May found you a lot of purple pajamas, didn’t she?”

“Purple,” Peter agreed sleepily, running his fingers over the fleece.

“What do you think? Can we forgo the usual routines?” Tony asked, tugging Peter’s sweater over his shirt.

“What’s forgo?”

“Means we don’t do them tonight. I can read to you tomorrow morning,” Tony enticed.

Peter threw his arms around Tony’s shoulder. “Want a story,” he mumbled.

“What kind of story? Like your book?”

Peter fell backwards and sat down hard. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on a sketch of Spiderman that Steve had drawn for him the year before. Flopping backwards, he grabbed his action figures. “Tell me about your favorite superhero,” he commanded.

“My favorite superhero?” Tony pretended to think. He gestured towards the head of the bed. Peter ‘bear-walked’ over to his pillow and slid under the blanket. Tony waited for Peter to settle before he began talking. “If pressed, I would say my favorite superhero is…” he paused, seeming to weigh his options. Peter watched his eyes, his own brow furrowed. “Spiderman,” Tony said decisively with a small grin.

Peter yawned and hummed. “Why?”

“Why do I like him best?” Peter nodded. His eyes were half lidded. Tony didn’t seem to have to think about it. He tucked the Spiderman figure in beside Peter. “Spiderman is so funny. He always makes me laugh. He cares about everyone. He is much more selfless than I am. He’s better than me…”

“Nuh uh,” Peter disagreed. “You’re the best.”

Tony half glanced at Steve, rubbing his neck self-consciously. Steve laughed, but shrugged. “Well, I certainly thought so,” Tony agreed.

“Do you know Spiderman?”

“Yeah, baby, I get to know him both in the suit and outside of it.”

Peter looked at Tony with visible confusion. “This isn’t what he always looks like?”

“No, no, this is just his suit. It keeps him safe against the bad guys.” Tony tapped the figure’s head. “Spiderman’s daddy wanted him to stop fighting bad guys cause it scared him. Only Spiderman wouldn’t stop. So his daddy made him the suit to keep him safe. It has a heater so he never gets cold and a parachute in case his webs break. There’s a phone built into the suit so that he can call for help.”

Peter was quiet. “But he’s strong?”

“Even strong people need to call for help sometimes. You know that, bud.” He nodded, but he still seemed to be turning over what Tony had told him in his mind. Tony hmmed. “Spiderman has super strength. He’s very smart. Heals quickly. Can’t drink peppermint tea anymore.”

“Are the other superheroes people too?”

“Hmm, look,” Tony mused. He scooped Peter’s Ironman action figure off of the ground. “Guess who this is?”

“Steve said his name is Ironman.”

“That’s right. But there’s someone behind the mask, you know? A real person who loves his baby very much. Can you guess who it is?”

Peter hummed, sucking on his fingers. Tony gently tugged his fingers out of his mouth. Wrapping his hand around Peter’s tiny fist, he gave it a gentle kiss. Peter brightened. “Is he Spiderman’s Daddy?”

Tony beamed at Peter. “You’re so smart. That’s right. Ironman is Spiderman’s Daddy.”

Peter smiled, seeming to melt down in the bed. “Ironman loves Spiderman?”

“So much,” Tony agreed.


	8. We Give Up our Hearts to the Past

Steve eased the door shut behind him a half hour later, cutting off the soft sounds of Peter sleeping. Tony sighed, running his fingers over his hair. “FRIDAY, alert me if he wakes up or seems to be in trouble?”

“Can do, boss. Peter’s current vitals suggest he has just entered the third stage of non-REM sleep.”

“Thanks, dear.” Tony began to make his way down the hall towards the common living room, Steve traveling silently in his wake. They were early for the agreed upon meeting time, but Natasha was there already. Tony dropped down next to her on the couch. “Is this my hoodie?” he asked, tugging at the sleeve of the sweatshirt she was wearing.

“It was. Now it’s mine.” She poked him in his side and he swatted at her.

“Unbelievable. I offer an unlimited clothing budget and everyone still takes my clothes.”

Natasha hummed. “Do you have an unhealthy attachment to this hoodie too?”

Tony spluttered. “Wanting to keep my own clothes is not having an unhealthy attachment.” He jerked his thumb at the supersoldier on his other side. “Why don’t you ever steal clothes from your best bud over here, huh?”

“I’ve got a couple of his shirts for sleeping in-,”

“Wait, you what?” Steve interrupted.

“But you’re much closer in size to me than he is. So it makes the most sense to grab your clothes.” Tony made a defeated noise of consternation and she laughed. Ducking his head, Tony seemed to laugh too, but soundlessly. Natasha wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer to her; he let her. “How are you doing, Tony?”

“Oh, you know me. I’m one of the Seven Wonders,” he quipped.

“You look tired,” she said, ignoring his quip.

“Raising a toddler alone isn’t easy,” he mused.

She flicked his nose. “You’re not alone. Right, Steve?”

“I’m just joking. You know. But everything’s okay,” he said, trying to sit up but she tightened her grip. “Triple Act, this is how rumors start. It’ll be in the tabloids before the morning.”

“Hands above the waist, Nat,” Sam said, striding into the room. “Hey, man.” He cuffed Steve on the shoulder as he made his way around the couch. 

“Sam, I feel like I haven’t seen you since this all started.”

“Yeah, you’ve been missing our runs. I’m going to be faster than you when you finally get your scrawny ass back out on the track.”

“I can live with that,” Steve accepted peaceably.

Tony slumpt back dramatically, landing half in Natasha’s lap. “Steve’s got a nice ass. Hey,” he said, tapping Steve with his foot. “Don’t let Birdbrains tell you any different. We look to your ass in times of greatest unrest.”

“Agreed.” Natasha and Tony shared mischievous grins.

“Looks like another sexual harassment claim to file with HR,” Steve said to Sam in his faux serious voice; Sam snorted.

“Alright, where are the other two?” Sam asked, restlessly looking around.

Steve could hear Scott’s voice coming closer and if he strained his super hearing, he could hear the smaller, tinny sounding voice of a girl. “Scott’s coming down the hall now. He must be talking on the phone.”

“And Bruce-?” But Bruce appeared on the landing looking out over the living room. He pulled the library door shut behind him and made his way down the spiral stairs, a notebook in hand and his glasses riding low on his nose.

Tony sat up as the two remaining members of their makeshift team came into the room. He fiddled with his hoodie strings absently, bouncing the leg he’d crossed over his knee.

“Tony, did you want to run this meeting?” Bruce asked.

The engineer grimaced. “I defer to Captain Rogers to run meetings,” he said carelessly, waving a hand at the blonde supersoldier. “Rest assured, I’ll jump in if I think we get off track,” he added, looking over at the man on his left.

Steve knew that Tony’s bravado only came out when he was anxious and seeking to pull the attention in the room off of the engineer- who looked every bit as tired as Natasha had remarked- he cleared his throat and leaned forward. “Alright, well we know what our objective is. Our first priority is to figure out what they did to Peter and fix it. Second is to shut down this base and make sure that it’s operations don’t continue in different places.”

He thought that Sam was going to disagree; something in the former soldier’s eyes seemed to indicate an alternative thought, but the airman was quiet. Steve coughed minutely and, staring up at the elaborate chandelier above them, laid out what he thought was best for them to catch the entire group up.

“Specifically focusing on my son, what do we know so far?” Tony asked.

Natasha crossed a leg underneath her. “Peter went after the HYDRA soldiers who had attacked you at the base. He was knocked unconscious and brought to a room in the upper quadrant of the base which the HYDRA scientists seem to confirm was the biogenetics division of the base. We were separated from him for 37 minutes before you and Steve broke through the defenses on that floor and began searching the different labs.”

“I found him in the fifth room we looked in. He didn’t recognize me, but he knew who you were right away. He seemed unharmed besides that bruise that we found later. There were no HYDRA agents in the room.” Steve glanced at Tony. “When we asked him what he remembered, he could only recall a green light in the room.”

“Green light?” Bruce interjected.

Tony nodded. “That’s what he said. He didn’t know where it came from. Why?”

Bruce glanced up from where he’d been taking notes. He looked over at Scott. “We’ve been testing the machine. It never produces a green light of any kind.”

“Something else in the room then?”

“Nothing we’ve found so far. Alright, we can go back to that. I’m keeping track of anomalies.” Bruce made a quick note in his notebook and looked up. “I examined Peter on the quinjet and then in more detail when we arrived at the Compound. He had the bruise that Steve mentioned, but otherwise is in good health. His blood work matched that on file. He does not seem to have any of his abilities at this time.”

Scott spoke up for the first time since he came into the room. “Is he acting normal Stark?”

“Yeah, I mean whining about dating problems, whining about what pajamas to wear, it’s all the same really,” Tony deadpanned.

Scott waved that aside. “I mean from how he was when he was actually this age.”

Tony scrubbed at his face. “Behavior-wise? It’s like we woke up in 2003 and just continued what we were doing. Only…”

“Only what?”

“Peter was premature, that’s why he’s always been so small. He used to get sick all the time when he was a toddler and he had asthma. We had to be careful… that doesn’t seem to be an issue this time.” He frowned. “I’ve been expecting it, I think.”

Bruce made a note of it. “Alright, well that’s definitely something…” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Anything else about that day in particular?”

Natasha leaned forward. “How did they know we were coming? It was already a skeletal crew when we got there.”

“Sam, you’ve been interrogating the remaining scientists. They give you any answers?” Steve asked.

“Most won’t talk. I have one guy though that I think we could break. I want Nat to come in with me tomorrow.”

It went on and on. Glad as he was that they had gathered so much intel, Steve felt like his head was spinning and, judging from the way that Tony’s leg was jumping, the engineer was also beginning to get overwhelmed by the onslaught of information.

Luckily, they only had to go over the actual machine that seemed to be at the root of their problem on a cursory level, having already discussed it several times already. Bruce produced the journal they had found and handed it over to Tony, who began to leaf through it as they spoke. Steve bumped into his shoulder. “Can you read what’s written here?”

“Yeah, this is Dari. I learned it after I was taken hostage.” Tony traced his fingers over a few lines. “It doesn’t really make sense though. Most of the research I’ve been doing on biogerontology changes cell structures on a chromosomal level but this is talking about manipulating cells on a temporal scale.”

Steve never felt more stupid than he did when he got into the weeds on an issue with Tony. Scott on the other hand, had leaned over and seemed to be following what Tony had just said with perfect ease. Steve looked behind Tony’s back over at Natasha, who shrugged and mouthed for him to keep quiet.

The two geniuses seemed to be communicating silently. “Well,” Scott said, seeming to turn an idea over in his head even as he spoke. “It’s like this. If Peter was de-aged with his memories intact, that would say to me that his body was solely what changed and that his mind was intact, but from what I’ve seen Peter has the memories, mind, body, and skills of a 3 year old and that means that it was time that was changed. It wouldn’t be enough to physically age his body up to a 16 year old cause we need to recover his memories and abilities too, you know?”

“I guess,” Steve said slowly.

“How did he get his abilities anyways?” Scott asked, his glance sliding over to Tony.

“Radioactive spider bit him and the venom genetically altered his cells,” Tony rattled off hollowly.

“And the spider is-?”

“Dead.”

“You guys go to the world’s worst zoo or-?” He abandoned his attempt at levity seeing the expression on Tony’s face. He looked over at Bruce. “There were no signs of the change to his DNA when you did the bloodwork? Do we have something to compare it to?”

“Yeah, we’ve got plenty of comparison material,” Tony said, rubbing his face. “You don’t think I’d take precautions when it comes to my son?” He also looked over at Bruce. “After he got bitten, we took all sorts of samples, did a lot of tests. We’ve got blood samples, tissues samples, all the data we took in regards to his powers…”

“Wait, Tony, that’s it,” Bruce interrupted, his voice unexpectedly charged. “I checked against those samples when we first got back to the Compound. We were looking for abnormalities in the samples, something that was different or potentially dangerous.”

“You said there weren’t any differences,” Tony interjected. Despite Bruce looking excited, Tony looked suddenly ill. “Were you wrong?”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Bruce said, waving aside Tony’s interruption. “We were relieved at the time that there were no differences because that meant that Peter was fine. He hadn’t been poisoned or injected with any chemicals. But his DNA still matched the samples we had taken after he was bitten.”

“And the spider bite had changed his DNA,” Tony finished, suddenly seeming to get what Bruce had been alluding to. “His DNA shouldn’t match that sample because his three year old self didn’t have those mutations.”

“But it did! Tony, do you have anything that would have Peter’s DNA from before the bite? An umbilical cord or-,” Bruce gestured, looking at the engineer.

Tony ran his fingers through his hair. “We’ve got his umbilical cord banked somewhere I believe. I also have some of his baby teeth in the drawer in my bedside table…”

“I’d like to run some tests against the two samples. If we could solve this without the scientists…”

“It would give us a better basis for how to calibrate our machine in the end, at least.”

“Yeah, I can-,” Tony was interrupted by FRIDAY.

“Boss, Peter is awake and requesting you.”

“Is he okay?”

“He seems to be in mild distress but is not in any immediate harm.”

Tony surged to his feet. “I’ll get you the teeth tomorrow, Bruce,” he called over his shoulder. Steve looked after the retreating brunette and wondered what was wrong that Peter was awake. He’d been completely out of it when they had left...

Natasha tapped Steve with her foot. “You should go help him,” she said pointedly. “He’s pretty tired and he looks like he’s going to collapse any minute.”

Steve nodded. He got up without any further prompting and made his way over to Peter’s room. He pushed in without bothering to knock. “Tony? He okay?”

Tony was holding a wailing Peter and rocking him gently. He shushed Peter. “Nightmare. And-,” Tony hesitated, “he wet the bed. Hey, Pete. You’re okay,” he soothed. “Daddy’s here.”

“Oh,” Steve said. Tony was probably afraid of embarrassing Peter when he was actually a teenager again. Despite his teasing, Steve knew he was fiercely protective of his son. “I won’t tell anyone. But what can I do to help?”

“Can you change the bedding? I’m going to get him out of these wet clothes, clean him up a bit.” Steve nodded, so Tony slipped off the bed and carried Peter over to his bathroom. Steve began to strip the bed of the wet bedding; he could hear Tony talking to the toddler over the sound of running water.

Dumping the sheets into Peter’s laundry basket, Steve realized he didn’t know where the clean bedding would be stored. He debated grabbing some sheets from his room, but he knew there must be a fresh set somewhere in Peter’s room. He opened the teen’s closet.

“Fuck, Peter, this is a mess,” he whispered, feeling almost impressed. Teenage Peter had somehow used the entirety of the real estate in the large closet and didn’t seem particularly concerned about organization. Steve sighed and knocked on the bathroom door.

“It’s open, come in Cap,” Tony called. 

Steve came in and leaned against the door. “Where’s the clean bedding?”

Tony turned off the water and wrapping Peter in a towel, stood up. “There should be some in his closet…” He groaned, seeming to realize something. “It’s a disaster. I told him to clean it before the last mission…”

Following Steve back into the bedroom, they went back over to Peter’s closet. Tony made a strangled noise and handed Peter over to Steve. “Okay, well baby, Steve’s going to get you into some new jammies, okay?” He kissed Peter on the cheek. “He’s lucky I love him,” he told the blond superhero darkly.

Steve could hear Tony grumbling as he poked his way into the closet. Carrying Peter on his hip, he grabbed a new pair of briefs and a set of pajamas. “What was your nightmare about, Pete?” he whispered, dumping Peter on the bed and helping him poke his legs through the leg holes of the briefs. “Want to talk about it?”

“I was in a dark room and I wasn’t in my bedroom and I didn’t know where Daddy was,” Peter told him. He leaned into Steve’s arms.

Steve hugged him. “You must have been scared.” Peter nodded, pushing his face into the blond superhero’s chest. Steve was curious. “What did the room look like where you were?”

“It was really dark and there was all this stuff.” Peter sighed. “There was a mean man.”

“How did you know he was mean?”

Peter looked offended. “He pushed me and I fell. I hit my back. It still hurts.”

“Where does it hurt, bambino?” Tony’s voice made Steve jump a little. He looked up. Tony made confused eye contact with Steve before dipping his head down to see Peter better. “Can I give it a kiss?”

Peter slipped out of Steve’s embrace before Steve could even think to let him go. Peter was showing Tony his back and it was right where he’d been bruised. Tony looked more alert than he had all night but he schooled his features into something calm. Tony pretended to kiss the spot and then pecked Peter on the lips for good measure. He looked up at Steve, visible confusion written in his eyes.

Peter spoke through his fingers. “He said something, but I don’t remember,” he mumbled. Yawning, he crawled back over to Steve and stuck his hands up. Steve realized belatedly that Peter wanted him to help him get dressed. He pulled the pajama top over his head. “Oh, then he pressed some buttons on something on the wall. There was a green light… a door opened up… there was a loud noise.” He yawned.

“A loud noise?” Tony repeated.

“If I may help Boss, it appears that the thunder outside was what woke Peter up,” FRIDAY supplied.

“Thunder’s scary,” Peter confided in Steve. Steve nodded and offered him a smile.

Tony was talking to FRIDAY. “The sound of the thunder should have been filtered out, sweetheart.”

“Apologies, my servers were rebooting that system. It seemed like an ideal time as Peter was in REM sleep.”

“Alright, well are the systems back up now?” At her affirmative, Tony glanced over at Peter. “Well, that’s fixed at least. Is he asleep?”

Steve rubbed the bottom of Peter’s foot lightly. “Seems like it. Tony, his dream-”

“Sounds a lot like what we walked into when we found him,” Tony agreed. He began to make the bed. “Let’s get him settled in. We can discuss it instead of our usual pillow talk.” They quickly made the bed, working around Peter who had drifted off again. Tony settled the toddler in between them and climbed in beside him, wrapping his arm around Peter.


	9. And Why Must We Grow Up so Fast

Steve didn’t bother setting his alarm that night, suspecting that Tony would turn it off anyways. He half thought that they should take Peter outside the next day as the rain had kept them inside, but when he woke the next morning he could hear the quiet sounds of sheets of rain coming down.

“How can I hear the rain though?” he murmured curiously.

FRIDAY startled him by answering his question, though she spoke very low. “Boss filters out sounds that exist outside of a preset range for Peter’s comfort. The sound of the rainfall is within the acceptable range.”

“Oh. Thanks.” Steve rolled over and faced the other side of the bed. So no outside time for Peter unless Tony wanted to get soaked…

Speaking of Peter… Steve took a minute to decipher what he was seeing but when he did, he couldn’t help but laugh. When they’d gone to bed last night, Peter had been put on his back between them but at some point in the night he seemed to have climbed over Tony and fallen back asleep, half stretched out over Tony’s torso and half crumpled against the bed.

Steve had tried to muffle his laughter, but Tony woke up just enough to raise his head slightly. “What’s funny?” he rasped. Steve indicated Peter’s position. Gazing blearily down his torso, Tony made a funny snort. “Oh… Petey…” Fumbling, he dragged Peter up so he was laying more securely on his chest. He breathed in the smell of Peter’s hair and seemed to fall almost immediately back to sleep.

Steve slid out of bed. Tiptoeing around in the half dark, he grabbed Tony’s phone and snapped a picture. He forwarded this to Nat and then stretched and decided he was up for the day.

He padded down the hall and tapped on Nat’s door. Hearing a soft ‘come in,’ he slipped in.

Natasha was sitting by the window, her red hair vibrant against the backdrop of what looked like the beginning of a dreary day. “Morning,” she called, catching his eyes before turning around to look back outside.

“M-morning,” he yawned. Maybe getting up had been a mistake after all. He climbed unceremoniously onto her bed and laid down.

She scoffed, but lay down next to him, her shoulder pressed against his. Groping around, he found her hand and squeezing it, closed his eyes. The sound of the rain was louder here and he could make out all the other noises that were filtered from Peter’s room. He wondered if Tony would install the same tech in his room and thought that there might be some noises he’d like to keep after all. But it would be nice to not fall asleep hearing every beep, rattle, and creak the compound made…

“You’re getting to be quite the bed hopper,” she commented. “Something wrong with your mattress then? Ruin another one?”

He grinned lazily. “That wasn’t my fault.”

“Of course not.”

“Want me to get up?”

“No,” she said decisively. She bumped his shoulder. “You’re the only one who holds my hand. I’d miss that.”

“I’ll hold your hand as long as you let me.” He rolled his head to look over at her. “Feeling sad, Nat?”

“Just pensive.”

He hummed. “Did you like the picture I sent you?”

“Very sweet.” She opened the picture on her phone. “Do you remember when we first met Tony, we thought he couldn’t possibly be a dad?”

He laughed. “Thought it was a prank,” he agreed.

“So why have you been sleeping in Peter’s room?” she asked.

“So you’ve noticed… Tony asked me to. He’s afraid he’ll call a suit in his sleep… hurt Peter…” He fought to wake up more and opening his eyes, found her looking at him. “Know that won’t ever happen. But he said it makes him feel like Peter’s safer so…”

“I can understand what he’s feeling,” she said, surprising Steve. She shrugged. “You get raised a certain way, you think that’s who you are.”

“Is that what you’re thinking about?”

“Maybe.” She rapped him on the stomach with her knuckles. “Want to do me a favor?”

“Always.” He sat up.

“Make me waffles?”

It was still pouring by lunchtime and Peter was taking his second day inside hard. He looked very close to tantruming and fussed more than he ate. “FRIDAY, is there still a chance of lightning?” Tony asked.

“Meteorological reports indicate it is highly unlike. The current weather forecast predicts the rain will continue for the next 12 hours, tapering off around midnight.”

“Alright, that’s good enough for me,” Tony decided. Tossing his spoon down, he stalked off down the hall.

“What do you think he’s doing?” Steve asked.

“No clue. He wouldn’t really go O-U-T like this, would he?” she asked, spelling out the word in an attempt not to upset Peter more.

“I love May. She’s amazingly ridiculous,” Tony commented, coming back to the dining area. “She bought you a rain jacket,” he told Peter, bending to look him in the eye. 

Peter perked up. “Rain jacket?”

“And rain boots,” Tony agreed. He tossed the jacket across the back of the chair opposite Peter. “For going outside in the rain. So let’s negotiate bud. You finish your lunch and we can go outside. Unless you’d want to stop here and we can stay inside?”

“Out!” Peter chirped. He scooped up some of the sweet potatoes he’d been avoiding and grinned up at Tony.

“Out,” Tony agreed, gazing out at the compound grounds. “We’re about to get wet in a whole new way, Pete.”

“Wet!”

The engineer stole one of the sweet potato cubes and popped it in his mouth. “Think I’m crazy?” he asked Natasha. She smirked and dipped her head in agreement. He scoffed. “So, you’re not going to come with us?”

“Tell you what Tony, I’ll go outside with you if Steve comes. There’s no reason why he should be inside, dry, if we’re not.”

“Agreed. Cap?”

Steve glanced at the rain outside and then back at them. “I guess,” he said dubiously.

A half hour later, they were out in the rain and while Steve thought Tony might actually be insane, he couldn’t deny that Peter was ecstatic. While the three adults huddled under an umbrella and followed after the toddler, Peter plunged ahead, jumping into every puddle he could find which inevitably showered him and the others in a wet mud. Peter had agreed to keep the rain jacket and boots on, but got tired of carrying the umbrella quickly and Steve had found himself somehow carrying it around.

While Peter literally rolled in a mud shoulder of the path (“Daddy, I’m a pig!”), Tony and Steve filled Natasha in on the dream he’d had the night before. “Do you think he’s remembering more?” she asked.

Tony turned quickly at a loud squawk but Peter had merely caught sight of a frog and was now carefully following its progress. Watching him, Tony shrugged. “Think he probably remembered it before too, but didn’t put any significance on it, perhaps.”

“The guy pressed something on the wall and a door opened?” Nat repeated as they did a third circuit.

“Whatever he touched seemed to make the green light,” Steve added.

“Did you notice anything on the wall?”

“Well, we were a little distracted by- Pete put the stick down!” Tony called out forcefully, making the other two jump at the sudden change in volume. He ducked out from under the umbrella and squelched his way over to where Peter seemed to be attempting to eat a stick.

“Should we help him?” Natasha asked. Peter did not seem to want to relinquish the stick and made his prehistoric shrieking noise when Tony attempted to wrestle it out of his hand.

“No… I think… he’s got it handled,” Steve said without much conviction watching them squabbling in the mud. Any protection Tony’d had under the umbrella had already been erased. They watched while he lost his balance and fell into the mud beside Peter.

“Still think he’s got it handled?” she asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think he’s right where he wants to be,” Steve decided.

“Steve, he’s not getting up.”

He cupped his hands to his mouth. “You okay, Tony?” Tony raised a thumb up but didn’t immediately pull himself out of the mud. The only good thing seemed to be that Peter had completely lost interest in the stick he saw his dad eat shit in the mud.

Nat snapped a picture. “He’s alive so this is fair game.”

“Are you okay?” Steve asked again, when Tony limped back over to them, holding Peter’s hand in his.

“I miss my teenager. He never would have brought me out in this kind of weather,” Tony joked, sounding more than a little defeated.

“Good news is in this rain, you won’t be muddy for long,” Nat told him. She squatted next to Peter. “Want to race back to the compound?” she asked him; he nodded. Without warning, she took off, Peter hot on her heels. The two men took one look at Nat running away from them, taking the umbrella with her, and they took off behind her. Steve could have easily left Tony behind except that he would have felt guilty.

They dashed into the training facilities section of the compound, that being the closest to where they’d been walking on the nature track. “Boss, May Parker is here,” FRIDAY told Tony as he pulled the doors shut behind them.

He lit up. “Where is she?”

“May is currently in the common area on the Avenger’s level. Would you like me to relay a message to Mrs. Parker?”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, snagging Peter by the back of his raincoat. “Ask her to come down here with some clean clothes for Peter. Tell her I’ll be in the men’s changing rooms.” At FRIDAY’s assent, he began to peel the wet and muddy clothes off of Peter.

“I’d go deep in,” Tony advised Steve as they made their way into the changing room. “May’s been known to waltz into venues such as this before.”

“What kind of lies are you telling about me now,” she called.

“May, you were much quicker than I thought you’d be, getting down here. Also, this kind of proves my point,” he said, gesturing expressively with his hands. He turned on the shower and ushered Peter under the warm water. “Can you take Pete for me? I’m going to rinse him off.”

“Tony, what on earth did you do?” She looked over at Steve, who could tell that his hair was plastered to his face but also knew that he looked much better than his brunette friend who was still half covered in muck.

“Kids get messy sometimes,” he said airily. “Did you have fun Pete?”

Peter peeked out from behind the shower curtain. “Daddy wouldn’t let me eat my stick,” he told her and ducked back inside the stall. She looked at Tony and he shrugged. He mimed giving her a hug and she gave him a look that could have killed lesser men.

“I’ll meet you upstairs as soon as I get all this mud off of me,” Tony called, following Steve to the other side of the showers where they were out of sight of May. “Love you! Sorry I made you come out into the monsoon, Cap,” he added. 

Steve had ducked into the shower stall while Tony was putzing around. He sighed as the hot water hit his skin. “It was all worth it to see you disappear in that last mud puddle....”

May had already disappeared with Peter by the time they had dried off and dressed in clean sweats. They debated calling into the female changing room, but decided that Natasha had probably been much quicker than they had and sure enough, when they went upstairs Peter was sitting in between Natasha and May.

“Nat was just showing me some pictures of you, dork,” May called over to Tony as he got off the elevator.

“What pictures?” he asked, getting immediately distracted. He wandered over to where they were sitting.

“Come sit down and I’ll show you.”

“I will! I just promised that I’d give Bruce Peter’s baby teeth to do some DNA tests and Steve’s going to bring them down to him for me.”

Peter scooted off the couch and ran after them. “My teeth? I’ll help you find them.”

“This way, baby,” Tony called after him. Peter had been heading into his room; Tony directed him further down to the room at the end of the hall. “You think it’s weird that I keep his baby teeth?” he asked the captain, seeming to suss him out without really looking at the blonde.

“Of course not.” Steve boosted Peter onto the king sized bed. Peter was happy to jump around on the mattress, disturbing the covers and knocking a pillow off in his wake. “My mother kept mine. God only knows where they are now.”

“My father probably kept yours,” Tony quipped. “Wouldn’t put it past him. They should be somewhere in one of these.”

“Can I help you look?” Steve was looking around Tony’s room. He didn’t think he’d ever been in here before; there’d never been a reason to. It didn’t quite look like what he imagined it would, but then, he thought, this probably wasn’t a room Tony spent a large amount of time in. Peter’s room had seemed better.

Tony gestured to the other bedside table on the right of the bed. “I wouldn’t open the top drawer if I were you,” he cautioned.

“Why-?” Steve asked, but he stopped before he could articulate the sentence. Tony half straightened to look at him, sniffed, and then ducked down to continue looking through the drawers on his side. “Oh.”

“Careful, Pete. You’re too close to the edge.”

Peter bunny hopped over to where his dad was crouched. Sitting down breathlessly, he peered at the pictures on the bedside table. “That’s me!” he crowed, pointing at the picture closest to the bed.

Tony glanced up. “That’s right, bambino. Here, careful,” he added, plucking the picture off the top. “Show Steve.”

Peter crawled across the bed, scattering the last of the pillows. “Steve, it’s me.”

The blonde took the picture from Peter and broke into a smile. “Tony, you look so young.” It had to have been the day that Peter was born. He was beaming down at Peter and Peter- Peter was tiny. Tony looked ecstatic but also, just a touch scared and-

“Daddy was crying,” the toddler pointed out.

“Was not.”

“Was too.” Peter scooted over to the other side again and regarded the other pictures with interest. Carrying the picture that he’d abandoned back to the side it belonged on, Steve gave up his search through the drawers before it had even begun. He looked with interest at the items Tony was sorting through, but Peter was still studying the photos and- “Daddy, who’s that?” he asked suddenly.

Tony cracked his head coming back up to look. “Ugh, who’s what, mimmo?”

“Who’s this?” Peter said again, pointing at the picture beside the one that Steve had replaced. Steve glanced up too and came very close to swearing. Tony had naturally kept photos of Peter from his actual childhood and this one that had caught Peter’s attention must have been a fairly recent addition; in fact, Steve thought he might remember the day this had been taken. At any rate, the sight of Tony with his arms wrapped around a teenage boy that Peter did not recognize as himself seemed to be causing the toddler significant frustration.

“Isn’t that your intern, Tony?”

Tony was rubbing his temple where he’d cracked it on the underside of the table and seemed uncharacteristically at a loss for words. “That’s right. Come here Pete, don’t cry.”

Peter had been treading a line between euphoria and tragedy all day and it seemed that this had pushed him over at last into the tantrum Tony had been trying to prevent all along. “But you’re mine,” he wailed, his face screwing up. 

The engineer swore lightly under his breath and tugged Peter into his arms, cradling him in the crook of his neck. Rising, he held up his hand and Steve realized he’d been clutching a small jar. Tony had found the teeth, just not quick enough. ‘Save yourself,’ Tony mouthed to him and Steve, feeling like a coward, grabbed the jar and headed off to find Bruce.


	10. Wishing Well Fools with their Fortunes

Steve dropped the baby teeth off with Bruce in his lab and sat with the scientist for a little bit while Bruce explained to him the process for extracting DNA from the teeth. He felt deeply that while Tony would never express this, he would be upset if all of the teeth got destroyed in the process- after all, he’d saved them for over a decade at this point- and tried to convey this to Bruce. The quiet superhero patted him on the back and agreed that he would try to make a minimal impact on the collection.

Steve stalked around the compound, feeling out of sorts. He wondered if Tony had calmed Peter down yet and wondered how on Earth Tony could possibly explain to his toddler why he would have all those photos of a teenager.

He checked in with both Scott and Sam. Sam, for all his protests, seemed to work well with the newest member of their little team, but that didn’t stop him from giving the brunette a hard time. Scott’s affable charm seemed to ease the brunt of these digs and stunts. 

Instead of using the elevator, he elected to climb up the five flights of stairs to get back to the Avenger’s common area. It would give him time to puzzle out what he was feeling, both about what was happening with Peter and how he felt towards Tony. If anyone had told him five years ago that Tony would become one of his closest friends, he would have likely scoffed and yet, now he felt like they were getting closer…

And then there was Nat, who pretended to put up such tall walls when it came to little kids, but Steve had been watching her with Peter these past few days and he thought she had natural maternal instincts. Starting on the next flight of steps, he remembered how she had told him a long time ago about the forced sterilization they’d put her through and his heart ached. Being with Peter like this was probably bittersweet for her.

Moments like these, he felt powerless, something he never thought he’d feel again after getting the serum. Tony was worried about Peter, about if they’d get him back to his normal self and if they could re-establish his powers. Nat was pensive in a way that made him act impulsive.

He slowed down as he climbed the last flight of stairs and blinked. He hadn’t realized he’d moved up the flights so quickly. Easing open the door to the Avenger’s floor, he leaned against the wall in one final attempt to try to organize his thoughts before he got back to the others.

Tony’s voice floated over to where he was leaning. “-think I’m not doing enough, May?”

“Listen,” he could hear her saying quietly. “You’re not in this alone. You have to trust your team. Besides, it’s not like you’re doing nothing. You’re taking care of Peter.”

He could hear Tony scoff. “That’s kind of my job, May. I’m his father.”

“You know as well as I do that being somebody’s father doesn’t mean jack shit,” she said in a heated whisper that still carried over to where Steve was. He needled his temple. Of course… Howard… “-Pete needs you doing this, honey-”

“We’re going to fix this,” Nat said. Steve had been wondering where she was and had almost expected that she would pop out behind him at any point. “We’re all on your side, Tony. You’re doing what we need you to do.”

He pushed off of the wall and rounded the passageway to where the others were sitting, or rather where Nat and May were sitting. Tony was still standing, rocking Peter in his arms. Steve wondered idly how Tony could carry Peter so much. The toddler was essentially dead weight when he was asleep and yet, Tony had never complained or given any indication that he was uncomfortable.

“Here’s our boy wonder,” Tony quipped, looking up at Steve as he came into the room.

“Hey, Tony,” Steve greeted. He squeezed Tony’s shoulder. “How on Earth did you get him to fall asleep?”

“Just let him cry it out, actually,” Tony confessed. “I didn’t even think about him seeing those pictures.”

“You can’t predict everything,” May scolded him, pushing herself off the couch. “Now that Steve’s here, I’m going to make popcorn.”

“We were going to watch a movie while he’s napping,” Nat told Steve.

Steve nodded, hoping that this could take Tony’s mind off of everything that was happening. They were essentially waiting for the others to crunch data and run down tests on DNA comparisons and that took time. “What movie?”

“Rear Window,” Tony said distractedly. “It was one of my mom’s favorite movies. Have you seen it?” Steve shook his head and Tony’s lips quirked. “Another step in getting you culturally caught up then.”

He shifted Peter up in his arms, putting the bulk of his weight on his shoulders. “How did you explain the pictures of him from when he was a teenager?”

Tony grimaced. “Didn’t. I’ll probably have to at some point though. I just got him out of there and once he couldn’t see them, he kind of forgot about them for the time being.” Shifting back and forth, he swayed with Peter. “It wasn’t really about the photos anyways. He was just pretty emotional at this age. Still is, actually. But different ways.”

They watched Nat dump some blankets on the couches and push the ottoman closer to where she was sitting. “You’re good with him,” Steve offered. “I always know how much you love him.”

“Luckily this time around, I have a lot more experience under my belt.”

Steve nodded. He brushed his fingers over Tony’s shoulder. “Pete like this is a reflection of how good you were last time though. He obviously adores you and you make him feel safe. The tantrums aren’t easy but they show that he knows you’re on his side, you know?”

“Yeah, well, just when you think you have parenting down, Nazis come in and ruin all your progress,” Tony muttered.

“Try to think of this as some bonus time with him as a baby,” Steve suggested halfheartedly.

Whatever Tony would have said in reply was cut off by the lights going out. May had turned them off manually and making her way back into the living room, climbed under some blankets. “Come on boys, sit. He’ll be awake before you know.”

Steve slid in beside Nat on the couch, but Tony seemed to hesitate. He almost sat in the arm chair at the end of the room, separated from the rest of them, but May intervened.

“No, come on, sit here,” she commanded, whacking the cushion on the loveseat beside her. 

Tony grabbed the bowl of popcorn she had in her lap and she began to protest, but he lowered Peter into her arms. Wedging himself in the seat beside her, he grabbed the bowl again. “Trade? Popcorn for the baby?”

May was running her fingers through Peter’s hair. “Nah. You’ve gotten to hold him the majority of these past few days. Just don’t hog it, okay?”

“Fair enough,” Tony agreed. He scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You know what this reminds me of, minus the kid?”

She flashed a grin at him. “Those nights we would sneak out of bed to watch movies.”

“Exactly.”

“Dad would get so mad,” she laughed, stealing the popcorn from his hand.

Steve frowned, listening to them talk. He still couldn’t reconcile the Howard Stark he’d known with the man he’d become. He hadn’t been a friend in the way that Steve was now friends with Tony, but he’d liked Howard, thought they could have become friends if things had turned out differently…

He was surprised to find out that the movie was in black and white. From their quips about catching him up to date, he hadn’t supposed that they would play such an old fashioned movie, but he found himself pulled into the plot easily. Both Tony and May seemed to have watched the movie enough times that he could hear them murmuring some of the funnier lines to each other from where they sat.

Tony did seem to relax under May’s influence. By the time the movie ended, he had slumped against her and was letting her run her fingers through his hair without objecting. 

Peter seemed to wake slowly just as they had reached the plot denouement, but he woke in a much better mood than Steve had last seen him in and seemed sleepily surprised to find himself in May’s lap. He slipped onto the ground and began to play with his Duplo legos without anyone asking. Tony flicked the lamp on next to him, but otherwise left the toddler to his own devices. 

When the movie ended, Tony and May made dinner. They were all half expecting a continuation of his earlier tantrum, but he had either completely forgotten it or was too distracted by the combined efforts of his dad and aunt; when the other Avengers joined them, it became extra chaotic.

Steve sat beside May after dinner. They watched Tony and Peter together; it seemed like the engineer was determined to give the toddler his undivided attention and Peter was reveling in it. “Hey, Steve,” she said, giving him the same half grin he saw on Tony’s face sometimes.

“Hey,” he said. “Could I ask you something?”

She turned towards him, curiosity lighting up her features which only made her more beautiful. “You’re unusually serious,” she teased. “Asking about Tony?”

“About Howard- your dad,” he said, wondering if he was starting something uncomfortable.

“Oh, Dad. I forgot, you two knew each other.” She sipped from her ginger ale. “Were you close?”

“He kept hitting on my girlfriend,” Steve told her bluntly and she laughed. “But we could have been friends except…”

“Except for you slipped on some ice,” she deduced shrewdly. “Well then, you know that relationships with Dad were always complex. Dad was a bit uncomfortable, I think, being a father to a girl. He tended to leave parenting me to my mother.”

“And with Tony?”

“He was much more hands on,” she said, making a wry face. “But I was never jealous of Tony,” she added, correctly interpreting his face. “Dad was hard on Tony, had high expectations, and didn’t tolerate failure well.”

“Oh.” Steve didn’t know what else to say.

“Tony was pretty afraid of becoming a dad, you know? He didn’t think he could be good enough.”

“I can’t picture him not being a dad at this point,” the Captain confessed.

“Me neither,” she laughed. Brushing a strand of hair from his face, she looked at Steve. Her Stark heritage was evident in the way she studied him; it felt like being x-rayed. Whatever she had been looking for, she must have found it. She said, “Having Peter might have saved Tony’s life. He got lost for a while.”

“Maybe someone should remind him of that since he’s feeling lost now,” he mused.

She nudged him. “Maybe you should remind him.”

She left him sitting on the couch shortly after to join Tony and Peter. Steve perused his copy of Cannery Row while the family worked on a fort. From what Steve could gather, they were play acting a story where Peter had to save the two adults. He was just wriggling over the ‘river’ when Nat asked for Steve’s help. The two superheroes could hear various bangs and shouts from Peter. 

Steve lifted Natasha easily onto his shoulders. He passed books up to her when she asked him to, and gradually the stack of books they were working on putting away shrunk. “You’ve been putting this off for a while,” he called up to her.

“I’m 5’3”,” she chided him. “We can’t all have your height.”

“That’s why you keep me around,” he told her. He lifted her up and over, setting her gently in front of him.

“Among other reasons.” She cocked her head. “Does it seem quieter out there?”

Steve listened. “Oh, they’re reading to Peter.” He caught her looking at him. “What? Oh, it’s just super hearing.”

“I wonder what else you hear,” she said, giving him a piercing look.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Really, I try to block out the extra stimulus. My hearing isn’t as good as Peter’s normally is anyways.”

“Jesus, I wonder what he hears in this place,” she murmured, beginning to prepare for bed.

“We probably don’t want to know,” he advised her. Kissing her on the cheek, he bade her goodnight and headed back for the living room. “Hey,” he greeted them softly, treading in and grabbing his book. Tony was lying on the couch, pinned on the inside with Peter using one of his arms as a pillow and his feet in May’s lap. 

Steve gave up trying to read because listening to Tony speak in various overblown accents was too funny and too distracting. Sitting in the love seat, he and May listened to him read Frog and Toad in a terrible Welsh accent. “Another,” Peter demanded sleepily when he finished.

Tony glanced at his watch. “It’s past nine, Pete.”

“I’m not tired.” He curled into the engineer’s side. “Let’s talk.”

“Talk about what? Talk about how you should be in bed?”

“Daddy! Something else,” Peter objected.

Tony had been about to get up and paused. “What’s up bubba?” he asked, sinking back down on the cushions.

“Who’s the boy you were hugging?” Peter asked.

“The boy in the picture?” Peter nodded and Tony sighed, running his fingers through his hair distractedly. Watching Tony, Steve realized that the engineer wouldn’t or couldn’t lie about Peter. “Well… that’s Spiderman.”

Steve dropped his book in surprise. Even May seemed thrown off. Peter alone didn’t react. He blinked owlishly at Tony. “I thought Spiderman was a grown up.”

Tony shook his head in a funny jerk. He stroked the side of Peter’s face gently with his thumb. “That’s cause you understand that kids shouldn’t be superheroes. Now if you could convince Spidey of that, it would save me some gray hairs.”

Peter giggled. His eyes were fluttering shut. “So Spiderman is just a big boy? That’s cool,” he mumbled, grinning goofily at Tony.

“Of course, you would think it’s cool,” Tony huffed.

“It’s sooo cool. Daddy, I could be Spiderman someday.” Tony hummed and pulled Peter closer to him. “How’d he become Spidey?” Peter asked him curiously.

“He was bitten by a radioactive spider.” Tony sighed. “He got very sick. We were all scared…” May squeezed his foot.

Peter seemed to brush that aside and Steve thought, ‘he’s always been protected, he doesn’t know this is his story.’ “But he had superpowers?”

“He didn’t tell anyone he had them, but yes,” Tony huffed. “He almost got hurt pretty badly a couple of times. When I found out…” He trailed off. Steve remembered how mad Tony was. Peter had gotten stabbed; he had almost died… It was the first time he’d ever seen Tony scared.

“I guess it’s okay if you hug him,” Peter sighed out.

Tony’s lips quirked. “Oh yeah, why’s that?”

“He needs extra love.”

Tony propped himself up on his elbow, gazing down at Peter. Lowering himself down, he threw an arm around Peter’s middle. “You’re such a smart boy, Petey. I don’t know how I ended up with you.”

“You needed me,” Peter reminded him.

“That’s right, I do.”

“I’m still confused,” he told Tony, drawing out the syllables in the last word.

Tony sighed, ruffling Peter’s hair with his breath. “What’s confusing, baby?”

“Iron Man made Spiderman’s suit. You said! Because he wanted to keep Spidey safe.”

“I did.” Peter’s fingers were inching up towards his mouth and Tony wrapped his hand around Peter’s before he could start sucking on them. He looked down at the toddler as he puzzled over this last question. “Pete, I am Iron Man.”

Peter giggled. “He doesn’t believe you, Tony,” May said, shaking his knee.

“Thought you said Iron Man is Spiderman’s daddy,” Peter said sleepily. 

Tony traded glances with May. She shook her head at him slightly and he raised an eyebrow. Looking over at Peter, they realized he had finally fallen asleep. “Dodged a bullet,” Tony whispered. “Don’t move him quite yet. He might wake up.”


	11. With Love from a Friend

Tony fell asleep while they were waiting for Peter to fall deeper asleep. Glancing at the clock, Steve was surprised that it was 10 o’clock- it seemed late for Peter to be up and early for Tony to fall asleep. “Let’s not question it,” May said when Steve voiced this to her. She gently slid Peter out of Tony’s arms and handed him to Steve. “Hold him just a second.”

“Shouldn’t we wake him up and send him to bed?” Steve asked, watching her cover Tony with several of the throw blankets.

“I’m afraid if we wake him up, he won’t go back to sleep. Tony’s essentially a toddler himself, half the time,” she explained, turning out the lamps around the living room.

Steve carried Peter to her room for her which she had FRIDAY let him into while she grabbed pajamas from Peter’s room, across the hall from hers. He couldn’t help but look at the photos on the walls as he waited for her; idly he remembered that Ben Parker had been a photographer. He’d liked Ben. The man had been kind and calm, a source of stability to the two original Starks.

He was studying a photo of Ben, May, Tony, and Peter when she came back in and he smiled apologetically. She came over to stand beside him, smiling a little sadly at the picture of her late husband. “I’m surprised Peter hasn’t asked where Ben has been in all of this,” she confided in Steve. “They were pretty close.”

“Maybe he thinks Ben is on one of his trips,” Steve suggested carefully.

She smiled. “That could be it. Anyways, if he asks, that’s what I’m going to tell him.”

Lifting Peter from his arms, she kissed him on the forehead. “Hey, sweetie. Oh, Steve. Want to see something?” She pulled him over to a different picture before he could say yes or no, but it didn’t matter. “Look at this.”

“Who’s that with Peter?”

Now she lit up. “That’s me,” she said, indicating the little girl with dark hair and bright eyes. She pointed to the boy the girl was hugging from behind. “That’s Tony.”

“Oh god, that is Tony,” Steve said with interest, looking closer. He looked at Peter. “They look like twins.”

“Pretty close, huh? Different noses and the eyebrows are a bit different. But besides that…”

“Wonder if that means Pete’s going to look like Tony when he grows up,” Steve wondered aloud.

May laughed. “Don’t think he’ll keep the goatee. Night, Steve.”

“Night.”

FRIDAY lit up sections of the hall to his room without him asking. Steve couldn’t help but wonder for the thousandth time it felt how the AI had become so intuitive. Maybe he’d ask Tony when this was all sorted, he decided, yawning. Discarding his shirt, he slid under the covers. It felt a bit strange to sleep in his own bed after the past week…

It felt like he had just closed his eyes for a few minutes, but the next time he opened them, it was several hours later. He blinked in the darkness, wondering what had woken him up. Rolling onto his back, he listened for the usual sounds: Nat’s heartbeat in the next room over, Bruce’s snoring, the sound of the arc reactor down on the first floor... 

He sat up. It was Tony’s heartbeat that was different- it was racing in fact. Steve felt a spike of fear- what if something was happening?

Stumbling out of bed, he snagged his shirt off the ground and sliding it over his head, darted out towards the living room. Tony had curled in on himself and seemed to be squeezing his eyes shut; his breath came out in short gasps. “Tony? Tony, come on wake up.” He shook the engineer’s shoulder. “FRIDAY, what’s happening?”

“Boss appears to be having a panic attack. I would suggest coaching him through his breathing techniques.”

Steve slid down to kneel next to the couch. “Okay, come on Tony.” He gently prised Tony’s right arm away from his chest and placed it over his own heart. “Hear my heartbeat? You can match it. You have to breathe Tony.” He took in a deep breath, exaggerating the movement and repeating it until Tony started to match him.

“You’re doing good, Tony. Can you open your eyes?” Steve asked, brushing hair out of the other man’s face. 

Tony shook his head. “I’m- useless- I’m useless like- this,” he said in between breaths.

“You’re not. You know that.” Steve pulled Tony unceremoniously into a sitting position. The shock of being completely lifted made the other man open his eyes. His pupils seemed to be blown wide with fear. “Hey,” Steve said. “You okay?”

“Your bedside manner leaves something to be desired,” Tony quipped.

Steve laughed. “I’m not going to listen to you put yourself down. Why didn’t you get FRIDAY to get you help?”

FRIDAY interrupted Tony. “I attempted to call May, but Boss overrode me.”

Tony wasn’t looking at Steve. “I can work through these.”

“But you don’t have to.”

Tony ran his fingers through his hair, subconsciously fixing it. “Where’s Peter?” he asked, ignoring Steve’s comment.

“He’s in May’s room. We thought you could use some extra sleep.”

Tony nodded vaguely. “Hey, FRIDAY, sweetheart, I need his vitals, I need-”

“Peter is sleeping peacefully. His heart rate is 102 beats per minute. His core temperature is 97.9 degrees Fahrenheit. He is currently-”

“Tony, why don’t you go see Peter?” Steve interrupted. “You obviously need to and it’ll make you feel better. Then you can go back to bed.”

“I can’t wake May up for something this stupid.” Tony pushed to his feet. “I just- I just get like this sometimes. I don’t know what triggers it. FRIDAY has been keeping track of the data. I’m supposed to-”

Steve wrapped his arms around Tony, running his fingers through the hair at the base of the brunette’s skull, trying to do his best impression of what he’d seen May do for both Peter and Tony over the years. “May’s not going to mind. Anyways, if you don’t go check on Peter, I’m going to myself. And it would be less weird for it to be you.”

Tony hmmed, which Steve took to be the closest thing towards agreement that he was going to get. “How’d you know to come out?”

“I could hear your heartbeat,” Steve told him somewhat apologetically. It made him feel like he was invading other people’s privacy at times.

“Huh. Forgot you also have super hearing.” Tony sniffed, trying to sound like his usual self. “Do you know that your shirt’s inside out?”

“I like it that way,” Steve said distractedly. Turning, he began to walk towards the other end of the residential hall, heading for May’s room. Tony followed him.

They stopped in front of her door. Tony was fiddling with his hands and noticing Steve watching him, shoved them in his pockets. “Thought you were leading this exhibition?” he bantered. Steve shrugged and pushed open the door.

“FRIDAY, turn the lights on 10%,” he added softly, stepping in front of Steve to enter the room.

Steve hesitated on the threshold, feeling like an intruder, but reluctant to leave his friend when Tony was so obviously not okay. He watched Tony perch on the side of the bed next to May; she’d fallen asleep curled protectively around Peter. Tony seemed to let out a breath he was holding in, watching Peter inhale and exhale.

May turned in her sleep and Tony stiffened. “May,” he said softly. “Don’t be afraid, it’s just me.”

She half raised her head. “Ben?”

“No, it’s Tony, May. Your incredibly handsome younger brother?”

She rolled on her back and smiled with her eyes still closed. “Oh, just thought for a minute that it was…”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“You okay?”

Tony looked back at where Steve was leaning against the wall by the door. “Yeah, no. Uh,” he fumbled. “Steve’s here. He thought I should see Pete. Cause I woke up and he was gone and I may have panicked a little cause I’m…”

“Oh, Tony,” she sighed. Sitting up, she hugged him. Sweeping her hair off to the side, she leaned against him, tracing shapes on his back with her fingertips. “Hey, Cap.”

“Hey, May.”

“Thanks for bringing Tony here. He would have spent the rest of the night in his lab otherwise,” she said, pinching him in the side. He jerked and looked at her reproachfully. She tousled his hair and then kissed him on the forehead. “So smart, so little coping skills,” she sighed out.

Steve pushed off of the wall and came closer to where they were. “You going to be okay, Tony?”

Tony jerked his head. He looked at May. “Did you notice Steve’s shirt was inside out? What’s that about, I wonder. Think our friend here sleeps in the buff?”

May pushed him over, getting out of the bed. “He’ll be fine, Steve. He can stay with me and Pete.”

“Okay, well if that’s settled, I’m going to go back to bed.”

“What am I, a chihuahua?” Tony said indignantly, but they both ignored him.

“Thanks, Steve.”

“Night, Tony. Go back to sleep.”

“Hey, I’m-” Tony blew out a breath. “I’m sorry I woke you. Both of you,” he added, turning so that he could see Steve too. I didn’t know where Peter was and I just-”

“Tony, your hands are shaking,” May observed. “Lie down. We’ll have a sleepover.”

“I- I don’t need to stay. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.” Tony looked pleadingly at May, the raw vulnerability hard to see when Steve was so used to Tony’s bravado.

May swept aside his protests. “Was I asking you? I don’t think I made it sound that way. Did I Steve?”

Steve smiled at her. “Gotta listen to the lady, Tony. She’s smarter than us.”

Tony was looking over to where Peter was still asleep, his chest rising and falling in tiny spurts. “Okay,” he finally agreed.

“Good. Thanks Steve.” May kissed him on the cheek, surprising the blond. “My baby brother can be kind of an idiot sometimes. Needs people looking out for him.”

“Always happy to help,” Steve said softly. He hesitated and then wrapped his arms around Tony’s shoulder in a tight hug; Tony was still shaking and he could feel the man stiffen.

“Sorry,” Tony mumbled into his shoulder. He squeezed his shoulders tightly, trying to convey that it was alright. “Thanks, Cap.”

“Anytime.” He let go of Tony reluctantly and raised a hand in the dark to where May was standing. “Bye, May.”

“Night, Cap.” 

He was in the hall before he realized what a terrible joke she had made and he realized that Tony had gotten it before him. He had seen a slight flash of a smile just when Tony was getting in the other side of the bed. Groaning, Steve padded back towards his bedroom where he fell back to sleep almost immediately.


	12. Nice to Hear from You Again

Steve thought that Tony might be avoiding him the next morning, or else, he had certainly gotten up much earlier than he had been for the past week. May was feeding Peter breakfast when Steve came out and Tony was nowhere in sight. He didn’t join them the entire time that they ate, even when the others came and went.

“Steve, are you going to play with me today?” Peter asked, tugging on his hands.

The captain lifted Peter off his feet, swinging him back and forth in a pendulum motion. “I can play with you at some point, bubba. Right now I just want to talk to your daddy, okay?”

“Daddy’s making something.”

“What’s he making?” But Peter just shrugged. Losing interest in the conversation, he wandered over to where his trucks had been lined up. “May, have you seen Tony?”

May tucked her hair behind her ear. “He was already gone when I woke up. FRIDAY says he’s in the lab, but he wouldn’t come up when I tried to oust him.”

Peter twisted to look up at her. “I didn’t know we were doing a sleepover with Daddy last night,” he said, the edge of a whine in his voice. “I was asleep.”

“Daddy fell asleep on the couch cause he’s old,” May told him conspiratorially. “Steve sent him in to sleep with us because he wouldn’t have been able to walk by morning, if he stayed where he was.”

“Steve saved Daddy?” Peter swiveled to look at the captain.

“I don’t know that I’d go that far.”

“Steve helped your Daddy. Now Daddy’s a little embarrassed, maybe.”

“I’m going to go talk to him,” Steve said decisively. Patting Peter on the top of his head, he made his way out of the common area. He pummeled the elevator’s down button. And here he had thought Tony and him were beginning to understand each other.

Tony was in his own lab, Steely Dan music blasting over the speakers. He was sketching quickly over a holographic table, his movements precise and well practiced. Using his hands to push and pull the holograms into place, he fit them together. Leaning back, Tony watched as FRIDAY finished a rendering of whatever it was that he was working on. 

Steve approached him, wondering if he was interrupting a brain wave. Without looking at him, Tony spoke. “FRIDAY, cut the music. Morning, sunshine.”

“How’d you know I was here?”

“FRIDAY warned me that a puffed up Steve Rogers was incoming.”

“You’re editorializing boss,” FRIDAY commented.

“Are you planning on eating?” Steve asked sardonically. Tony held up his coffee cup. “Tony, that’s coffee.”

“My apologies, did I miss the morning kumbaya?”

“You did. Which is a real shame, since now I have video evidence of your nice singing voice,” Steve deadpanned.

Tony grinned, finally turning around to look at the other man. “So if I’m to have this straight, you are threatening me in order to help me better process my feelings? You should run groups, Cap.”

“How is it that every conversation we have goes rapidly off track, Tony?”

“I’m a chaotic thinker,” he quipped. “Which is good in cases like this because I get my inspiration from weird places. Like old pictures…”

“So you’re not avoiding us because you’re embarrassed about last night?”

Tony tapped a screwdriver against his thigh meditatively. Pulling his shirt sleeves over his hands, he contemplated the hologram in front of them. “Yes and no.”

“Glad you could clear that up.” 

Tony laughed, genuinely laughed at that. “You’re feisty this morning, Capsicle. I’m trying to tell you about my feelings, which is what I assumed you wanted out of all these team chats and training exercises. Stark men are not supposed to be weak, you know. We don’t cry. We get angry in private. We don’t make mistakes.”

“You don’t honestly believe those things, do you?” Cap’s voice was pained.

Tony bumped shoulders against him. “No. That’s just how I was raised. And it’s hard to break old habits. Do you think I should be embarrassed about last night?”

“Of course not Tony.”

“Well, I am.” He put the screwdriver down on the workstation in front of them, carefully lining it up against the edge of the space. “Half embarrassed, I guess.”

“What’s the other half of what you’re feeling?”

Tony coughed. “Howard would have thought I was a terrible father, you know? The moment Peter was born, I knew I couldn’t possibly love anyone else more. I didn’t want him to be anything like me.”

Steve opened his mouth to protest, but Tony plowed on ahead before he could say anything. “I tell Peter all the time that I want him to ask for help, to let me know what he’s feeling, to talk to me and I can’t leave him hanging out there on his own. So I’m really trying to be better for him. I’m trying to do the things I ask him to do. I don’t,” he grimaced, “I don’t do a good job of it, Rogers.”

“You’re the best dad I know,” Steve countered. “Just trying is enough, Tony. Nobody expects you to be perfect.”

Tony sniffed, making to cross his arms in front of him. He seemed to change his mind at the last second and shoved his hands in his pockets instead. “We have got to stop having these big emotional talks, Captain.”

Steve wanted to tell Tony that they could only make him better, that he deserved the full spectrum of human emotion that he had been denied for so long, but looking at the expression in Tony’s eyes, he knew this would have to wait. Tony had been vulnerable in so many ways these past couple of days and it was clearly getting to be too much. Tony liked to be in control, he strove to be blithe, and yet, things had truly fallen apart this time.

“What are you working on, Tony?”

Tony smiled in the way that made Steve’s heart stutter. “I woke up with an idea, Cap.” Beckoning Steve closer, he began to describe what he was building. From what Steve could understand of the engineer’s explanation, it was a machine built based on Cradle technology but worked on a cellular level. Tony had the notes Bruce and Scott had written about their previous experiments open on the table in front of him and seemed to be well versed in them. 

“It would require some additional inputs in the way of the DNA that Bruce has been testing and there’s a factor missing that we haven’t worked out from the original machine…”

“Boss, Scott Lang is requesting clearance to enter your lab,” FRIDAY said smoothly.

Tony startled. “Let him in, dear.”

Hearing the sound of the door to the lab releasing its lock, Steve turned and watched Scott slope into the lab. “Hey, Cap. Captain. Rogers,” Scott greeted affably, stumbling over the names. “Stark.”

“Scott.”

Coming to stand next to them at the holograph table, Scott cracked an easy going, if nervous smile. “Am I interrupting?”

“Oh, yeah, I was just telling Steve that if he was planning on grabbing my ass, he’d better not to start anything he wasn’t planning on finishing,” Tony quipped mildly. Steve, who had just taken a big sip of water, ended up spit-taking onto the West Coast superhero.

“Shit,” Steve swore (“language,” Tony reproached him) and handed Scott a clean rag from the desk behind him.

“In prison I waited in line for half as much,” Scott joked, toweling off. “Well, I don’t want to get in the way of your playing house, but I do have some information. First of all, the scary redhead wants me to tell you that they have concluded the interviews with the scientists you captured at the beginning of the week and she wants to go back to the HYDRA compound based on what they reported.”

“And second?” Tony asked, waving aside Steve’s objection to calling Nat the ‘scary redhead.’

“Bruce has an update on your son’s DNA.”

Tony scrubbed his face. “Alright, we’d better go up there. Fri- store the data for this machine under my private server. Let’s put it under protocol name… Spidey Hormones. Yeah, he’ll like that when this is all sorted out.”

“Will he actually enjoy that?” Scott asked Steve.

“No.”

Joining the other three at the conference table in the library, Tony drew Bruce aside where they began to discuss the specs for his machine in some earnest. Steve couldn’t help overhearing snippets of their conversation (Peter’s DNA taken at the beginning of the week had matched the samples they had taken after his spider bite, but not the DNA extracted from his baby teeth and seemed to indicate that his spider mutations were still there), but also soon got drawn into a conversation of his own with Sam.

It was decided that they really only needed to send a team of three or four people over to the base whereas the others would remain behind to begin working on the machinery which they hoped would restore Peter to his actual age and to keep the compound safe. Ideally, they needed at least one person with scientific training, a linguist, and an engineer.

“Are you going to come, Tony?” Nat asked, looking at the billionaire.

Tony considered. Steve thought that he would want to be part of the action, but Tony surprised them all by shaking his head. “No, I stay with my son. I can send a suit and join you remotely, but I’m staying with him here.”

Scott rose from the table too, but did not follow the others towards the quinjet launch area. “Stark, I could help you here.”

“Fetching coffee?”

“Building your machine. I saw the specs. I’ve got a degree in electrical engineering.”

Watching them, Steve realized that Scott seemed to have a certain amount of imperviousness to Tony’s overall air of aloofness. He wondered if it was their connection as the sole fathers on the team that made them connect in a way Tony didn’t often, especially with such a sudden addition. Part of him felt jealous of this new connection and he chided himself for feeling that way.

“You’re not coming either, are you?” Nat asked, watching him carefully.

“Would it be helpful for me to come?” If it would, Steve would come along, but he did have to admit that he felt a certain reluctance to leave the Compound with Peter in trouble.

“No, I think we’ve got this with Bruce, Sam, and me. We should be fine.”

“Stay safe then, Nat.” With a flash of a smile, she left.

Watching them go, Steve felt a pang of anxiety at the team being separated. He turned to look at the two brunettes. “Are we starting right away?”

“It’s going to take a couple of hours for them to get over there. We should eat lunch. And I promised my kid I’d play with him this morning.” Tony clapped him on the back, the gesture surprisingly gentle. Looking over his shoulder, he addressed Scott. “Like tacos?”

“Sure.”

In the grand scheme of things, Steve would rate tacos as the messiest meal they’d given Peter so far. Tony ate defensively but seemed resigned if not content to let Peter pick bits of fallen meat and cheese out of his lap.

“I’ve got an hour before you need to take a nap and I need to start working, bud. What do you want to do?”

Peter shoved cheese in his mouth meditatively. He brightened. “Want to see your suits, Daddy!”

“Like my 3 piece Armani suit?”

“What’s a 3 piece our mommy suit?”

Tony glanced at May. “His conversation skills did improve. We’re going to have to give Pete more credit when he’s back to normal.” She snorted loudly into her chips. “Never mind the mommy suits. I’m guessing you want to see my Iron Man suits.”

“Yea!”

“Alright, well then we just have to go over some ground rules.” Tony turned the booster seat so that Peter was looking at him properly. “My suits are down in my lab and the most important thing you have to remember is that they aren’t toys, can you remember that?” Peter nodded solemnly. “Good. Then let’s talk lab safety.”

Tony repeated the rules to Peter twice, speaking slowly and concisely. He quizzed Peter gently on the rules again while he cleaned spare bits of food off of his front with a facecloth, May helping him; when they were convinced that Peter was clear on his expectations, she lifted him out of the booster seat and let him run behind Tony. 

“How many suits does he have?” Scott asked curiously, as they followed a few steps behind the father and son duo. “Oh, shit,” he said, upon stepping deeper into Tony’s lab. Steve turned his laugh into a coughing fit. Tony must have had over 50 suit designs at this point, especially when the Spiderman suits were factored in.

Tony had insisted on picking Peter up when they were in the lab, and he held Peter’s hands protectively to his chest. Steve began to gather the materials that Scott directed him to grab, but paused abruptly. 

He’d glanced at the engineer out of the corner of his eye and suddenly was struck with how much Peter looked like his usual self in the moment; something in the careful way he listened to Tony as Steve’s friend described the inner mechanisms of the suits evoked his teenaged self in a way Steve hadn’t caught yet. Suddenly, he couldn’t help but see the person Peter was going to grow up to be and he wondered if this was what Tony saw every time he looked at him.

Steve felt an inexplicable ache in his heart, realizing that as eager as they were to return Peter to the age he was meant to be, he personally would miss Peter being young like this, so carefree and innocent. Tony had obviously tried so hard to keep Peter this way and yet, Steve remembered clearly the night that Ben had been murdered- how traumatized Peter had been, the way he had clung to Tony, and, oh god, the blood on his hands…

He felt a pressure on his arm. Glancing down, he followed the arm over to the concerned eyes of Scott Lang. “Are you alright?” the green eyed superhero asked worriedly.

He inhaled sharply. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Just… remembering something else.” He looked over at Tony and Peter. Tony was listening to Peter babble excitedly over the suit, but his eyes were on Steve and he looked concerned. Their eyes met and Steve blinked. He offered Tony a half smile and grabbed the toolkit at his feet.


	13. And the Storybook Comes to a Close

May came down and got Peter after an hour of Tony showing him the different suits. Steve was surprised how easy the transition was from one sibling to the other, had thought they would see another tantrum from Pete, but it seemed like Tony and May had formed some kind of agreement and Peter was happy enough to head off with his aunt.

“How close are they to getting to the base?” Tony asked, coming to join Steve and Scott.

“Sam says they will be there in a half hour.”

Tony nodded. He was looking at the work they’d been assembling. “This is good work,” he offered. “I haven’t been much help.” He offered a crooked smile at the captain.

Scott spoke up from where he was kneeling and seemed to be calibrating a screw. “It’s not easy balancing out work and family.”

Steve nodded in agreement. “We’ve just been getting this started.”

Work seemed to move faster with Tony there. He had a natural air of progress about him, his fingers clearly used to the work. Scott and Tony seemed engrossed in the work, carefully making their way through the schematics, and Steve understood for the first time, Tony’s need for music. The quiet of the lab was punctured only by the occasional clang of the tools.

“Boss, Agent Romanoff is attempting to patch you in to the comms.”

“Patch her through, Fri,” Tony called, rolling out from underneath the machine. “Agent Romanoff, miss me?”

“We’ve been apart two hours, Tony,” she said drily.

He stepped in front of the screen and stood by Steve’s side. “Still. Is the base secure?”

“SHIELD’s forces are still in place and holding steady. We’re going to split up, make this search as quick as we can.”

“Establish checkpoints, just in case,” Steve said, remembering the last time they had decided to split up in this base.

“FRIDAY, set the suit to guard mode and have it follow along with Nat,” Tony called. Through the visuals of the suit, they could see Natasha moving down a hallway that Steve recognized as the one where Peter had been attacked.

Tony shifted restlessly on his feet. He clearly didn’t enjoy the role of bystander. Him and Nat kept up a steady conversation as they catalogued the different rooms and the contents therein. Steve checked in between them and Sam and Bruce’s progress. The other two were applying the intel to find hidden compartments and other useful evidence they’d overlooked at their last glance through.

Natasha, with Tony’s backing, had a much more singular purpose. Tracking the pathway that they had taken Peter when he’d been captured, they slowly made their way to the room in the upper quadrant of the base. Steve gave up trying to remain equitable, and came over to where Tony was standing, both men watching Natasha and the suit begin a slow and steady search of the room.

“What are we looking for exactly, Tony?” Steve asked.

“There’s a factor for this machine we’re building that we need to find, but the information might have been compartmentalized to another sector. There was also the suggestion that there was another room in this sector that we did not find in the initial search.”

“The timing also doesn’t make sense,” Nat chimed in.

“Right, I’d like to know where these asshats went after they flipped the machine on.” Tony directed the suit to scan the wall to the right. “There was something on the wall, he said.”

“Who said?” Nat asked, sounding distracted.

“Peter said. That dream he had.”

“Do you think that there’s actually something on the wall?” she asked, coming to stand next to the suit.

“Maybe. Don’t know,” Tony said tersely. “Fri, scan for any abnormalities in the wall.”

FRIDAY scanned the wall in front of the suit. Seven different calculations seemed to pop up immediately as soon as she finished the scan. Steve had trouble looking at them all, but the engineer beside him seemed to process them quickly. “Fri, you see that?”

“Affirmative.”

Nat ducked in front of the Iron Man suit and found what Tony had narrowed in on. There was a brick in the wall that wasn’t the same as the others, but Steve would never have noticed on his own. Removing the brick, Nat found a keypad set in the wall behind it. “Four digits, Tony.”

“Not so difficult…” The two heroes conversed back and forth in low tones. Thinking that it would take time to crack the code, Steve wandered over to where Scott was continuing to work on the machine.

“Hey,” the slender brunette said.

“Hey, did you really do all this while we’ve been processing the camera feed?” The machine was starting to look incredibly like the Cradle he’d seen in the medbay, with some obvious design tweaks.

“I keep my sleight of hand to card tricks mostly.”

“Got it.” 

Steve’s attention was pulled back to his friend. “You got it?” He called to Tony. “How’d you get it so quickly?”

Tony didn’t answer. His head was turned. Steve approached him and stopped. “Huh. That’s not what I expected,” he said, looking through the visuals.

Nat held her comms to her mouth. “Sam, Bruce. Why don’t you get up here?” 

“Huh,” Steve agreed..

Hours later, Tony led the way back to the Avengers common floor. Leaning against the glass wall of the elevator, he gazed out at the sinking sun and seemed to be lost in thought. He startled when Steve put his hand on the other man’s bicep and Steve almost pulled his hand back but Tony flashed a smile at him last minute. Giving it a slight squeeze, he shuffled his feet and leaned back as well.

“Feel like you spent the whole day in the lab?” Tony asked, without looking at him.

Steve gave a weak chuckle. “Tony, we did spend the whole day in the lab. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Ah, usually these days I have Pete with me and he pulls me out of the lab if we’re there too long. Bit ironic to spend so much time in the lab to get him back in it.”

With a small ding, the elevator opened on the correct floor. “May, we’re back,” Tony called.

“About time!” She called back. “I was beginning to think about dinner.”

“Good, Steve’s hungry.” Steve looked at him in surprise. Tony shrugged, looking more self-conscious than he ever usually did. “What, aren’t you hungry?”

“Yes, but how did you know?”

He shrugged. “You and Pete are always hungry.”

“When are the others coming back?” May asked, looking up from where she and Peter had been building with blocks.

Steve followed Tony back into the living room. “They’re on their way back now. It should be another couple of hours.”

She hummed. “Did you learn anything useful?”

“Some stuff,” Tony murmured. Kneeling next to Peter, he held his arms open. Peter dropped his block reluctantly to give him a brief hug; Tony barely gave him a squeeze before the toddler was squirming back to where his tower was. “Tough crowd,” Tony told May.

“The blocks are very distracting.” She held out a hand for him to pull her up. “He wasn’t interested in me, either.”

“Well, as long as we’re universally being shunned.”

She glanced around. “Where’s Eager McBeaver?”

Steve paused and then realized she had to be referring to Scott. “He’s video chatting with his daughter. Is this nickname thing a Stark trait or-?”

“Dad hated it,” they said in unison.

“Now it’s just a habit, though,” May explained, sounding almost apologetic. She nudged Tony. “I personally like Scott. I think he’s handsome.”

He sputtered. “Do you? Me, too,” he agreed smoothly, giving her a look.

“Not as handsome as you find Steve, though.”

“Well, nobody really could be.”

Not sure if he was being roasted or if Tony was, Steve slumped onto the couch. He vaguely thought about a cooking show that Happy had been telling him about last time but listening to the two Starks banter was just as satisfying in it’s own way.

Flopping down beside him, May ruffled Steve’s hair. “What would you like for dinner, Steve? Your turn to choose.”

Steve rested his head against the back of the couch. “Italian,” he decided.

May beamed. “Did the fact that you are surrounded by Italians at this moment influence your decision?”

“I actually forgot.”

“A likely story. Tony, are there actually any good Italian places around here?” She smiled at Peter who had wandered over to where she was sitting. She must have done something silly next, because Peter laughed and made a face back at her.

“Yeah, there’s a family restaurant in the next town over that’s decent. I mean, Mom would kill us if she knew we got takeout Italian, but it’s not bad.”

“Mom wasn’t working a full time job,” May grumbled. “Did you want to go out to eat? Can we do that?” she asked, looking doubtfully at the toddler in front of her.

Tony sighed. “Probably shouldn’t unless we want to potentially start a media storm. ‘Stark has another child?’” He gave as an example, using his signature one finger air quotes.

“Yeah, guess that won’t work.” She held out her phone so that both her and Steve could look through the menu.

“FRIDAY, send the menu to Scott Lang and see what he wants. Peter will have Chicken Parmesan and I’ll have Eggplant Rollatini.” He scooped Peter up by his armpits. “Does that sound good?”

Peter considered and then nodded. “Yummy,” he agreed.

“Good.” Tony surprised Peter by tossing him into the air. He shrieked with laughter, especially the second and third time Tony did it.

“Again,” he begged, putting both hands on the sides of Tony’s face.

“One more time,” Tony agreed. But he tossed Peter in the air two more times. When the toddler was breathless with laughter, Tony cradled him against his chest. “You like that? I love you.”

“I love you,” Peter said in between excited gasps.

“The restaurant said it would be about 40 minutes, Tony,” May called from the kitchen. Giving Peter one more kiss, Tony set him on his feet. Peter swung around his legs playfully and toddled back to where Steve was sitting on the couch.

“Daddy throwed me, Steve!” He could hear Tony snort as he slid out of the living room. 

Steve couldn’t help but smile at Peter’s expression; he was pure joy in that moment. “I saw, bud. Your dad knows all the fun things, doesn’t he?”

“One time, Tony threw him into the ceiling,” May confided in the captain.

“Are you serious?” Steve winced, but Peter giggled.

“He felt really bad.” May smoothed Peter’s hair down. “Well, at least now we know you still grow up to be smart. Tony was a little worried he’d broken you.”

“Not broken,” Peter protested happily. He flexed his arms. “I’m strong.”

“You really are, baby. You’re our fighter.” She looked over Steve’s shoulder. “There you are, honey. Where’d you slide off to?”

Tony was leaning against the door to the hallway. He was watching Peter thoughtfully; when May called out to him, he pushed off of the wall and walked towards them. “Been thinking about something all afternoon. Thought I might as well do it now.”

“And what have you been thinking about?”

Tony shuffled through what he was holding and held up a frame with a picture of Peter in it. “Thought I’d explain to him a little more about what’s happening. Do you think that’s a mistake?”

May paused and seemed to think about it. “It’s up to you, Tony. We’ll make it work either way.”

“We generally do, don’t we?” He set the frames down on the couch next to Steve. “Here, Pete, there’s something I want to show you.” 

“Like show and tell?”

“Exactly. Wait a second, baby.” Tony wandered over to the bookshelf. Searching for a few minutes, he trailed his fingers along the spines of some albums. “This one,” he murmured and grabbed one of the albums. Seeming to think about it a little more, he also grabbed another one.

Bringing these back over to where Peter was playing he put them beside the frames and then scooted down to where Peter was sitting on the ground, joining him in leaning against the couch. The toddler climbed into his lap, leaning back against his chest. “Whatcha got Daddy?”

“Well, here,” Tony said, brushing his lips over the shell of Peter’s ear. Reaching behind him, he grabbed one of the frames. “Who’s this picture of?”

Peter kicked his heels happily. “That’s me.”

“That’s right. Remember when it was taken?”

“Last year at the aquarium,” Peter said slowly, fumbling with the word aquarium. “We went with Uncle Ben and Aunt May.”

“That’s right.” Tony kissed him. “So that’s you at two. Here’s me when I was two.” Setting the frame on the coffee table where they could both see it, he grabbed one of the photo albums that he’d put on the floor next to him, and flicked through the pages. “Have I shown you these before?”

Peter shook his head, leaning closer to the pictures. “That’s you, Daddy?” He poked the picture Tony had stopped on with a pudgy finger.

“That’s right. See, there’s May.” Grabbing the frame from the table, he held it beside the album. “What do you think Pete?”

Peter bounced with excitement. “We look the same.”

“Want to see another?” Leaning back onto his chest, Peter nodded, rubbing his face against the material of Tony’s shirt. “Okay, what about this picture? Where was that taken?”

“That was my birthday!” Peter yelled, craning to look at Tony.

May had scooted off the couch and grabbed the photo albums. “Here’s Daddy when he was three,” she said, giggling.

Steve was looking over their shoulder and he laughed too. Tony had been dressed in a sailor suit and looked fairly resigned. Leaning over, he could see the same similarities in Peter and Tony that had tricked him the night before. The main difference was that Peter was beaming where Tony wasn’t.

Tony turned the page and found a different photo. “Remember Pete, I never put you in silly outfits like that. Someday I’m going to grow old and need you to take care of me. Anyways...” He trailed off. Peter was looking between the two pictures. Satisfied, he looked up at Tony. “We’re still the same, huh? Okay. One more.”

Steve handed him the last picture frame. It was the more recent photo of Peter, but Steve noticed that Tony had been careful to pick a much less hands on photograph. They looked like they had been hiking.

Tony flipped the picture around so it was facing the right way. “So, who’s this, big guy?”

“Spiderman.”

Tony gave him another kiss, a deliberately obnoxious kiss that made Peter laugh and push at his face. “I love you, you know?” Peter nodded, playing with Tony’s fingers. “Good. Well, this is Spiderman when he was 15. Kind of a dork, huh?” He ran his fingers through Peter’s curls.

Setting aside the picture frame next to the other two, he reached out for the last album he’d pulled. May had found a good picture of Tony this time. Tony was wearing an MIT t-shirt and Steve thought he saw Rhodey in the background. “Here’s Daddy, when I was 15.”

He waited while Peter looked at the two photos. Peter looked rather confused, but not as upset as Steve had thought he would potentially be. Tony was watching Peter’s reaction carefully, his fingers anxiously messing with his own hair now. Peter curled sideways in Tony’s lap, looking up at the engineer with a surprisingly adult quizzical expression. “Spiderman looks like Daddy too?”

“Spiderman looks a lot like Daddy too,” Tony confirmed. “Not quite as handsome, but mostly like Daddy- ah,” he yelped. May had pinched him in the side.

“What’s Spidey’s name?” Peter asked.

Tony seemed to mull that over. “Spiderman’s name is Peter.”

“Like me?”

“Exactly like you.” Tony sighed. “Petey, what if I told you that you grow up to be Spiderman?”

Peter laughed at him. “You wouldn’t let me do that! It’s not safe!” He wrapped his arms around Tony’s neck and nuzzled him. Steve could see Tony’s lips quirk into half of a smile and heard the man sigh into the hug.

“Well, that’s what I said,” Tony mumbled in Peter’s ear.

“So you’re just being silly?”

“Not this time, bud.” Peter glanced at all the photos around him and looked at Tony again, like he expected Tony to say that he’d just been joking. Peter poked the hiking picture. “That’s me?” he asked.

“That’s you.”

“How?”

Tony blew out a breath. “Kind of complicated. You were helping me and the bad guys got a hold of you. Put you in a machine and when we found you, you were younger like this.”

“”I’m this old because of magic?”

“You’re this old because of science. But Pete, you’re the same person. This Peter,” Tony tapped the picture. “Is sixteen and likes to sleep late in the morning whenever he can. He likes chocolate shakes and wants to be cuddled but thinks he’s too big for that kind of stuff.”

“This Peter,” now he tapped the toddler’s chest. “Is three and he likes to wake me up super early. He likes chocolate shakes and he gives the best hugs and Daddy’s so glad to get to hold him more-” His voice broke off and Steve saw that Tony was as surprised as any of them to be tearful.

Peter gave him a hug. “Are you sad?”

Tony shook his head. “No. I just love both of you so much. My baby Peter and my teenager,” he clarified.

Peter studied the other pictures. “So I’m not your baby anymore?”

“Pete, you’re my baby no matter what age you are.”


	14. Gone Are the Ribbons and Bows

“How much did this come to?” Scott asked, sorting through the stacked boxes. “I could pay you back…”

“Don’t worry Stuart Little, I think I can cover this one,” Tony said drily, cutting Peter’s chicken up for him and popping a piece in his own mouth. He raised an eyebrow. “I’m a billionaire,” he reminded the other brunette.

“Oh yeah. Well, thanks,” Scott said, sitting next to May at the table.

May passed him a piece of bread. “Tony’s been supporting my takeout habit for years now. Don’t let his crusty exterior fool you. He likes to get stuff for others.”

“You don’t enjoy cooking?”

“Not really. Besides, I’ve got other things I want to do.”

“May knows how to cook, she just doesn’t like it. Mom taught you.” 

She pointed her fork at him. “I’ve grown more accustomed to it. I just resented being forced to learn just because I was the girl.”

“When May got married, she deliberately sabotaged every meal she made for the first six months,” Tony told Steve, leaning against his elbow and quirking his eyebrow. Across from him, May snorted with laughter, nodding happily. “Ben was so mad when he found out.”

She giggled. “Cause he’d been pretending to ‘love my cooking’ for months.” She beamed at Peter, who’d been laughing too. “Then Ben took over the cooking, didn’t he baby?”

“Ben makes cookies.”

“Oh, he did make the best cookies, didn’t he?”

If talking about her late husband made her sad, she didn’t let it show, but there was still something in the way Tony and May were quieter that crept over the conversation. She let Peter babble at her. Steve was grateful when Scott spoke up, filling the empty silence. “What about you Tony? Did they teach you how to cook too?”

Tony looked up thoughtfully. “Dad didn’t want me to learn.” He looked at May and then spoke in an eerily accurate impression of his father, “‘the kitchen is a woman’s place’.” She scoffed at him. He rolled his eyes, but looking at Scott, he added, “our mom would cook with both of us if Dad was gone. Or sometimes when things got… dicey.”

“Daddy, chicken.” Peter held out his fork to Tony.

Tony let him feed him pieces of chicken. Chewing, he flashed the toddler a smile. “It’s so nice of you to share, baby.”

“Boss, Sam Wilson would like me to relay the message that they are within 30 minutes of the base.”

“Thanks, Fri. Tell them I’ll be ready for them when they get here.”

“Can do.”

Being the person that was sitting next to Tony, Steve thought he might be the only one who noticed how anxious Tony had become now that the others were returning. They’d successfully managed to ignore the initial findings up until now, but Steve could feel Tony’s leg bouncing up and down next to him. When the other man cleared his plate and set it in the sink, Steve followed, leaving Scott and May who seemed to be having a blast entertaining Peter.

Steve strode over to where Tony had come to stand, a floor to ceiling window which had a clear view of the Quinjet’s landing site, but right now only showed the darkened forest which surrounded the compound on the northern line of the property.

“Alright Tony?”

“Never better Capsicle.”

Steve wanted to broach the topic of what they’d observed before over comms but he could practically feel the walls coming off of Tony and he knew the other man would shut down if pushed. There were actually a lot of things Steve wanted to discuss with Tony, but it never seemed to be the right time. After they sorted things out with Peter, he thought.

He realized too late that Tony had been looking at him, a half smile curving into his face and Steve wondered if he had missed Tony saying something, if the other man was waiting for him to respond. “What?” he asked, feeling foolish.

“Just thinking it’s nice to stare moodily out at the world with someone else, Buttercup.”

Steve half laughed, a little self conscious. “Lot to think about. Never know what to expect with this job.” He rubbed his face, feeling the rough texture of stubble; he should have shaved this morning, he mused idly. “Today wore me out.”

Tony nodded, his sharp eyes studying Steve’s face. “I get that.” He hesitated. “Are you joining us tonight? Me and Pete, I mean.”

Steve nodded. “I can.” He paused. “Does it actually help,Tony? It can’t make too much of a difference.”

Tony shuffled his feet. Glancing at Steve and then turning to look out at the darkened grounds, he coughed. “Come on, Rogers. You saw how I was last night.”

Steve bumped shoulders with him. “You had a panic attack. That’s not a crime.”

“Not exactly father of the year material either. I just want,” Tony turned to look at Steve, “I just want my kid to be safe, Steve.”

“There’s no one he’s safer with than you. I won’t stop until you know that.”

Tony cracked half a smile. “You are persistent, Captain.”

“In this case, cause I’m right. I’ll stay with you, if it makes you feel better. I’ve liked…” Now it was Steve’s turn to hesitate. “I’ve liked spending time with Peter like this. And you. It’s been kind of like… having a family.”

He blushed deeply when Tony fixed him with a searching gaze. “You know?”

“You could be part of my family, Steve,” Tony said, surprisingly softly. “I don’t know why you haven’t run for the hills yet, we’re all a little dysfunctional, but you’re definitely a part of this quirky family we seem to be gathering.”

Steve leaned against the glass, studying Tony’s dark brown eyes. “Now I’ve got a question for you.”

“Why did I tell Peter about the age regression thing?”

Steve blinked. “Well, that wasn’t my question, Tony, but that is a fair point. Why did you?”

“Wait, what was your question?”

Steve arched his eyebrow and waited. Tony huffed, but the effect was ruined by his smile. Rubbing at his eyes, he sniffed. “Pete’s got to know what’s going on, as best as he can. I can’t put him in this machine, not knowing what the effects are without at least telling him what’s happening.”

“Do you think he really understood what you explained this evening?”

“No.” Rolling his shoulders, Tony looked him in the eye. “No, but he might have gotten some of it. He’s been noticing some differences adding up these past few days. The arc reactor scars, my alleged gray hairs…”

“You barely have any gray hairs, Tony.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling May.” (“Ten minutes away, boss,” Friday interrupted.) Tony smoothed his hair down. “I don’t think he’ll really get what’s happening, but it’s important to me that I try to explain it to him. My dad… my dad always had a plan for what I needed to do next, but we never talked about it, you know? When he died…”

“Suddenly there was no plan.”

The engineer hummed. He gestured towards the stairs that ran along the glass wall to the front of the Compound. Steve followed him. “So, what was your actual question?”

Steve blushed. After Tony’s explanation, his question seemed self-centered and obnoxious. “Nah, never mind.”

“No, come on. I bare my soul to you, we clearly are running out of secrets.”

“Uh uh. Look, there’s the Quinjet,” Steve said, pointing out to sky above the landing area where lights had appeared. “We should go meet them.”

Exiting out into the night, they trod across the dew strewn grass. It was an almost moonless night, dark with stars popping out above them. Steve looked for the Three Kings of Orion’s Belt, his eyes always drawn to this constellation and finding it, smiled to himself.

“Steve, I’m afraid.”

Surprised, he looked over to where Tony was standing, but couldn’t see Tony’s face in the darkness. Reaching out, he touched Tony’s arm hesitantly and when the engineer didn’t protest, grabbed his hand. “Tony?”

Tony squeezed his hand, but couldn’t seem to talk. After a minute of watching the Quinjet come to a complete landing, he blew out a breath and spoke in a whisper.“We’re so close, but what if it doesn’t work? Or what if something goes wrong?”

Before he could come up with a response that didn’t ring false, the door to the jet opened up and light spilled out onto the grounds. Tony let go of his hand as the others came down to the steps, opting to cross his hands over his chest in a convincing imitation of nonchalance.

Nat tread over to where they were standing. Slipping between them, she intertwined her arms with one of theirs on each side. “Boys,” she greeted them.

“Glad to have you back,” Tony told her, kissing her on the temple. “You missed dinner.”

“Maybe I’ll just have dessert,” she tossed at him. They began to walk back to the Compound, Sam and Bruce trailing behind them. Steve could hear Sam’s even timber telling jokes to Bruce behind him.

They took the elevator up to the common floor this time. Assessing the others once they were under the lights, Steve realized they all looked tired. Natasha leaned full against him, using him effectively as a pillow. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, giving her a smile when she tilted her head up to look him in the eyes.

May was washing dishes when they got off the elevator. “Where’s Pete?” Tony asked her, coming to lean against the counter next to the sink.

“Scott’s been reading to him. Pete really likes him, Tony. Scott does a really good impression of Mrs. Doubtfire and Pete- well, we recorded it. He wouldn’t stop laughing.”

Tony hummed. “I’m going to go check on him. See how they’re doing.”

Bruce was excited to hear they’d made progress on building their quasi-Cradle technology and left to check on the machine himself while they were waiting to regroup. Sam muttered something about taking a shower and slipped off towards his room on the next floor up. Steve steered Nat towards the couch, promising to get her ice cream for her.

When he got back Natasha and May were both laughing. May was reading aloud from a book with a skeleton smoking a cigarette on the cover and listening to her read, Steve could feel his lips quirking as well. He laughed loudly when she read the next story about the author accidentally sneezing out a lozenge onto his fellow passenger.

Sam strolled back in halfway through them reading and picked up Peter’s switch, idly turning it on. “Bruce is coming down too,” he commented.

“Steve? You want to go grab Tony and Scott?”

“Yeah, I can.” Untangling himself from where Nat was leaning lazily against him, he pushed up off the couch and headed down the hall to where Peter’s door was open. He leaned on the door frame and gave a little wave to Tony, who was lying in bed next to Peter, the blankets piled high over the toddler.

Tony waved with two fingers back. He and Scott, who was sitting in a chair next to the bed and leaning on his forearms, seemed to be reading from a book called Elephant and Piggie and from what Steve could observe, were acting as the titular characters. Peter giggled helplessly at their combined antics, but the book was dipping in his hands; he was clearly falling asleep and didn’t want to.

Tiptoeing in, Steve sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the stack of books growing on Scott’s side of the bed. It looked like Scott had read at least seven books while they had been outside. 

Sharing a significant look, the next time they turned the page, they began to read even quieter than they had been when Captain had come into the room. All three men stilled and waited, holding their breath, when the book slid from Peter’s hands. Sleeping with his mouth wide open and his head lolling off the pillow, he had apparently finally lost the battle.

Sliding out, Tony fixed his sweater which was riding up his back. Scott eased the last book out of Peter’s hands and set it with the others on the side table. “We meeting to discuss the mission?” he asked in a whisper.

Steve nodded. “In the living room.” Scott left and Steve watched when Tony knelt across the bed to kiss Peter on his forehead.

“Love you, mimmo,” he whispered, adjusting Peter’s head so that it was back on his pillow. “Fri, how about the star lights,” he added, glancing at the ceiling.

FRIDAY dimmed all the lights in the room except for a couple of points of light in different spots on the ceiling. Steve smiled, finding Orion’s Belt. “I didn’t know they could do that,” he said quietly, but excitedly.

Tony glanced up quickly and then looked down again. “Pete loves space, just like you. Should we go see the others?”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, still looking at the different constellations on the ceiling. “Yeah,” he agreed reluctantly. “Let’s debrief so we can all go to bed.”

Tony took a seat in between May and Nat, stretching out his arms so that they were resting on the couch behind them. He touched May gently on her shoulder and she took his hand with hers, squeezing it; he smiled faintly.

Steve elected to sit besides Bruce at the table, feeling sluggish after hours of looking over manuals and working on minute structures.

Bruce leaned over to look at Tony. “You made a lot of progress while we were gone, Tony.”

“Call me motivated.”

Tony leaned forward. “So, FRIDAY’s beginning to parse through all the data you logged. Should we just jump in? What the fuck was up with that room?”

“What room?” May asked, giving him a side look.

He fumbled for his phone and swiping through the interfaces quickly, brought up video feed from the afternoon. Handing it to her, he watched her face. Lines appeared between her brows. “Tony, are those skeletons?” she asked finally, pausing it to hand the phone back to him.

“Those are skeletons and it gets worse.”

Nat drew her legs up in front of her. “It looks like they flayed a human body. A couple of human bodies,” she corrected herself.

“Why would they do that?” Scott asked and Steve was almost glad to see that he was looking a little green in the face. When they had first seen the footage over the camera, Steve had felt like he was going to throw up. Nat and Tony were characteristically composed however and he’d begun to feel unreasonable in his disgust.

“We can actually fill in that blank. Looks like they were trying to make cyborgs.” Sam looked at Bruce. “Right?”

Bruce took his glasses off and cleaned them carefully. He spoke deliberately. “We began reading through the literature on the jet and they do indeed seem to be attempting to combine organic and biomechanic material. It seems like they turned to this after failing to duplicate the super soldier serum.”

“So they stopped working on the technology we need to help Peter?” Steve asked, feeling a bit hopeless.

“I don’t think so. Why would it be operational if they had?” Nat asked, looking Tony in the eye. He frowned, seeming to turn the idea over in his head.

“FRIDAY, have you isolated the data on this particular type of technology yet?” he asked.

“Affirmative, I am configuring the stats given with regard to the model you’ve drawn up.”

“And when will this finish rendering?”

“By my calculations, the machine would be ready to use in 36 hours.”

Tony looked up at the ceiling, startled. None of them had expected that answer. Bruce spoke, seeming to suss out the situation. “FRIDAY, are you saying we could fix what happened to Peter in 36 hours?” At her affirmative, he asked a different question. “And how accurate is this machine right now?”

“Current configurations place it at a 90% success rate.”

“90% isn’t good enough. We can’t use this machine without knowing for sure that this is the correct formula to input,” Tony said firmly. “We’re not experimenting on Peter.”

“What if we tried the machine on one of the scientists that caused this problem in the first place?” Natasha suggested, glancing over at Tony.

Bruce leaned forward. “Wouldn’t we have to de-age one of the scientists to see if the machine would do what we need it to do for Peter?” At her nod, he sighed. Removing his glasses, he knuckled his eyes. “So here’s the thing. Ethically, we shouldn’t be doing experiments on babies, even if they were previously evil Nazi scientists.”

“Dude, what even is our life at this point that people can say sentences like that and they make sense?” Sam said in a carrying whisper to Scott.

“Do Nazis really deserve ethical treatment?” She asked blithely. “Don’t you think they lose those rights when they do harm to so many others?” Steve went to open his mouth to talk and realized he didn’t know what he’d say, given the chance. Shutting it with a click, he looked to the brunette sitting next to him.

Tony placed his hands on the table in front of him. “It’s like this, we have to hold ourselves to higher standards than Nazis. Everyone is deserving of certain rights that we cannot violate. I can’t willingly agree to de-age those scientists and then use experimental technology on children. However,” he said, looking over to Natasha. “They don’t know that we have those moral grounds. If we could convince them otherwise…”

“They might at least give us the factor that we’re missing in order to create the machine,” she agreed, sighing a little.

“Sorry to stick a pin in your Geneva convention violations,” he sassed her.

“Alright, I’ll visit our friends tomorrow with our… offer.”

With that, the discussion was over. While Sam and Scott convinced a reluctant Bruce to play Cards Against Humanity with them, Tony seemed to converse in low tones to May. Steve caught Nat as she gathered her stuff. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“Late night gym session.” She chucked him on the chin. “Got to blow off some steam. Get some sleep, Steve, you look terrible.”

He huffed and let her go. He did feel tired. Approaching the two Starks, he stood on the edge of their conversation. “Going to join the game?”

Tony shook his head, but May nodded. “You?”

Steve glanced at the others setting out cards. Part of him wanted to play- he always had fun- but the other part of him had had enough human interaction for the day. Moments like these, he was sure that he was an introvert. “Nah.”

“Then come to bed with me,” Tony said with a lascivious grin.

“Be gentle with him, Steve, he’s old,” May said, patting him on the stomach as she passed.

“I have to change. Working in the lab did a number on my clothes.”

“I’ll follow you then.”

Tony strolled after him down the hall and into his room as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Glancing at some of the artwork Cap had pinned to the wall, Tony flopped dramatically on the bed and pushed his way up using his feet.

“Make yourself at home,” Captain said sarcastically, watching Tony shove all three pillows on the bed behind him so that he could lounge comfortably.

“If you didn’t want me in here, you wouldn’t have let me in,” Tony pointed out. “You think I can really go head to head with you sans suit?”

Steve turned so the other man couldn’t see his smile. Internally, he wished he had at least a few more defenses against the older (younger?) man’s charms. “That’s true, I definitely could have kicked you out,” he conceded, rifling through his bureau for a pair of flannel pants and a t-shirt that didn’t have so many oil stains on it. 

Tony hummed and ignored that. Glancing behind him to see if Tony was watching him, Steve was relieved to see that Tony was at least staring up at the ceiling. He changed quickly. “Has this bed been harder to break, Cap?”

“I broke one bed!”

“You could have just told me you didn’t like the mattress. Use your words,” he shot at him, grinning wickedly. Steve shook his head at him, but he was laughing too now. “So, Rogers. What was your question from before?”

“I don’t even remember.”

“Huh. Liar.” Tony slid off the bed and approached Steve, looking him in the eye, his brown eyes crinkled with thought. “Alright, different question. Why don’t you want to ask it anymore? You were hot to trot a couple of hours ago.”

“It’s really self absorbed,” Steve offered reluctantly.

“Intriguing. A different side of you to be certain.”

“Why are you always teasing me about my looks?” He was surprised to have said the words aloud.

Now Tony looked a little concerned. “I won’t do it, if you don’t like it.”

“No, I don’t mind it at all. I think it’s funny, it’s just…” Steve shifted his shoulders nervously. “Sometimes it seems like you’re…”

“Flirting?”

“Right and you don’t do that with other people.” Tony seemed to actually be running the interactions through his head. Steve laughed despite his nerves. The Italian superhero looked at him with some reproach. “Sorry,” Steve laughed. “I know it doesn’t mean anything Tony. That’s why I wasn’t going to ask about it.”

“What makes you think it doesn’t mean anything?” Tony asked, apparently despite himself.

“Well, you’re not gay.”

“I’m truly offended if you’re saying parenthood has neutralized my natural chaotic bisexual energy.” Steve had been about to open the door to the hall, but at that, he pushed the door shut again with an audible click. He turned to look at Tony; Tony shrugged.


	15. Things to Remember, Places to Go

Steve’s mind had gone totally and completely blank, but Tony who had been watching him carefully, he realized, actually smirked. His smile hinted at the beginning of laugh lines forming at the corners of his eyes. “I’m the same person who mildly annoyed you at training last week,” he offered.

“You more than mildly annoy me,” Steve countered, leaning against the door.

Tony’s eyes sparkled. “Good.”

Steve thought Tony was going to push more, and so was wholly unprepared for the brunette to wander away from him, his hands jammed in his pockets. He felt very wrongfooted. Was Tony interested in him or just teasing him? He’d been completely taken by surprise by Tony’s admission; although, as he watched the engineer studying some of his sketches, he realized he’d been very oblivious or else, perhaps Tony’s chaotic side covered other aspects of his personality…

He joined Tony. Tony spoke while seeming to study a sketch of Nat and Bruce. “Not going to start thinking differently of me, are you?” There was that way of asking questions without making eye contact again. Steve pushed on his shoulder so that he was facing him again.

“Of course not.”

“In my defense, I thought you knew. The scandals of the 90’s are pretty well documented.”

Steve picked up a pencil from his desk and fiddled with it. “I’m a moron.” Tony chuffed at that.

“Nah, I wouldn’t be so intrigued by you, if you weren’t smart.”

“It never occurred to me to look into your social life,” he admitted.

Tony nodded. “I would expect nothing less from someone born in 1918,” he said, mirth evident in his voice. “I don’t want you to think differently of me, Cap. Your friendship’s important to me.”

Steve glanced up at Tony and for the first time, saw the nervousness in Tony’s eyes. Of course, he thought. The bravado. His hands in his pockets. Tony felt vulnerable, he realized. “When we get Peter back to normal, we’re definitely going to have to explore this more,” he said, trying to impart the self-assuredness that everyone told him he possessed.

“Probably should, shouldn’t we?” Tony brushed at a piece of lint on Steve’s shoulder and then, hesitantly, he held his arms out. Steve blinked. His mind chugged back into action. Tony had never initiated a hug, not with anyone besides May or Peter and it felt rather like a gift. Stepping forward, he buried his face in the shorter man’s neck. He felt Tony sigh and he squeezed him tighter. “Sorry to make you wait, Cap.”

“Peter’s our priority.”

“You’re such a fucking gentleman, do you know that?” Letting go of him, Tony took a step back.

He laughed. “You’re always telling me that, Tony.”

“It bears repeating.”

Steve thought about the Peter he knew, the loquacious teenager with the heart of gold. Everyone loved the teen, looked out for him, not the least of which was Cap. If he was worried about putting Peter through this process, he couldn’t imagine how Tony was feeling. “Let’s talk about Peter,” he offered. “You said you were scared before. We didn’t really get to talk about that.”

“This is a single shot kind of thing. Can’t fuck it up.”

“Maybe we should test it out on Scott.” Tony looked up at him, surprised. Steve gave an apologetic smile, not sure if this was really the time for joking. “Even if we aged him up a couple of years, he’d still look younger than both of us.”

Tony snickered. “I wouldn’t have left the West Coast if I had known about its magical anti-aging qualities.”

“I think we’ll be able to get the answers we need from Nat’s interviews tomorrow, without having to experiment on Scott.”

The engineer nodded. “That’s good, I think May likes Scott.” Steve glanced over at him. “Oh, not romantically. Or at least, I don’t think so. Huh. I like Scott too actually. He’s nice to my kid and my sister.”

Steve wanted to get some more answers while the brunette seemed to be willing to talk. “Tony, do you know what caused your panic attack last night?”

He gripped his arm. Running his tongue over his teeth, he mulled over the question. “I’ve been feeling panicky for days. Ever since this started. It’s just… building up, the longer this goes on.”

“What’s causing that? Can we help?”

“It’s like…” Tony exhaled. “I have to sleep in the same room as Pete right now. I can usually sleep in my own bed without having nightmares,” he said, a hint of sass and desperation mixed in his voice. “I didn’t co sleep with him last time around cause I had read all the parenting literature. But I have to be there with him this time around.”

“You’re afraid something will happen to him?”

Tony blew out a breath. “I’m… When Peter was first born, sometimes I would sleep on the floor next to his crib. He was born premature and it was months before they would discharge him from the hospital… When they finally sent him home, I was so afraid that he was going to get hurt. Like if I wasn’t there, he would stop breathing or he’d…”

“He’d already been through a lot. You were afraid for him.”

“It’s what it feels like right now. Like if I don’t check in on him, something bad could happen. So I can’t leave his side.” Tony’s eyes were pleading. “I always worry about Peter, he’s my baby, but I haven’t felt this way in years…”

Steve caught Tony’s arm in his hand, grounding him. “I get it, Tony.”

“I know it’s irrational. We’re at one of the safest places we could be.”

Steve hummed, nodded his head slightly. “Love’s not really rational.” He rubbed his thumb over the nanotechnology implant in Tony’s arm. “You put these in your arm to keep Peter safe?”

“I’m never going to be without a suit when I need one again.”

He nodded. Tony looked defiant and Steve thought that others had probably tried to convince him otherwise before; he didn’t bother trying. It was Tony’s choice what he did with his body and honestly, Steve couldn’t say he wouldn’t do the same, that he hadn’t done the same when he accepted the serum experiment. Other people couldn’t understand why they did the things they did. His thoughts wandered. “It must have been really hard being a single parent, especially in those first days.”

Tony fiddled idly with the nanotech implant, drawing a gauntlet over his hand before shaking it and causing the nanotech to seemingly dissolve back into the housing unit. “I spent the last couple of months before he was born trying to get clean from the alcohol and drugs. Forced me to become a better person.” He looked up. “Peter was born early and I, I was still a mess. I mean, I am a mess now too, so…” He shrugged, with his PR smile in place. “I wasn’t using when I had him, I was just going through the withdrawals.”

Steve blanched. He’d seen a fair amount of substance use when he was a soldier and couldn’t imagine the pressures of quitting while also raising a medically frail newborn. “May and Ben were my lifesavers,” Tony added, breaking into Steve’s thoughts. “They moved into my apartment with me for the first six months Peter was home. And May’s threatened to kick my ass at all the necessary junctures of my life.”

Steve snorted. “I don’t doubt it.”

The grandfather clock rang the hour, startling both of them. “You have a grandfather clock?” Tony asked almost indignantly but Steve was more surprised by the time. Midnight and Peter would probably be up early the next morning. “We should go to bed.”

“Come on, I’ll tuck you in.” Tony breezed down the hallway and Steve followed in his wake. He could hear laughter from the living area. “Give me a minute,” he whispered as they entered Peter’s room. “I’ll pull back the covers.”

“Tony, I’m 37, you really don’t need to-,” Steve started to say.

“Steve,” Tony whispered. “You’re like 97. I let you do things on your own, I’m actually a bad person.”

“You going to hold my hand when I cross the road too?” Steve quipped sarcastically. He slid under the covers, trying not to jostle Peter. They scrutinized the toddler for a reaction; his chest rose and fell with steady rhythm and Steve breathed a sigh of relief.

Tony laughed. “I don’t know, let’s find out sometime huh?”

Steve snorted. The noise made Peter stir and Tony carefully leaned over the supersoldier to give Peter kisses on the side of his face. Sighing, Peter turned on his side and made a loud snoring noise that made them laugh silently.

Tony was distracted, Steve knew. He was too quiet on the other side of Peter. Steve felt nervous in a way that he had never felt with the other man before. “Tony?” he asked quietly when some time had passed.

“Yeah, Steve?”

“Are you okay right now?”

Tony sighed. Throwing an arm over Peter, he pulled him closer to his body. There was a pause where he didn’t speak. “I don’t know. Can you talk to me about something? Anything.”

Steve cast around for something to say. He found Orion’s Belt above him again. “The star lights are pretty cool, Tony.”

Tony turned his head to look up at the constellations above him and then buried his face more in the pillow. “Space scares me,” he admitted through a yawn. “But Peter’s always telling me how beautiful the stars are.”

Steve groaned internally. Of course he had mentioned space, the one thing Tony was afraid of. And he should have known too. He’d seen Tony riding into the wormhole those years ago, felt the flash of panic. “Sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?” Tony raised his head off his pillow in surprise.

“I forgot that you wouldn’t like space.”

“I never tell anyone that space scares me. Kind of my schtick, Cap.”

“What about Peter? It sounds like you told him.”

Tony absently nuzzled Peter’s head with his nose. “Trying to break the cycle of shame. I told him one night when he was having a nightmare. He thinks… I need some better memories of space…” Steve turned over to look at him; Tony was clearly falling asleep. “We’re going to go stargazing in the fall…”

Steve smiled at the thought. Peter definitely brought out Tony’s softer side. “Sounds fun.”

The engineer smiled at last. “You could come, you know.”

The next morning, Steve found Natasha where she’d holed herself away in the corner of the room that was closest to the windows. Sitting with a cup of tea and a plate of toast, she seemed to be watching the murmurations of the birds outside. “Hey,” she said, patting the spot beside her.

He slid into the chair indicated. “Hey.” Then feeling it would be useless to attempt a preamble, he asked her directly. “Did you know Tony was bisexual?”

That definitely got her attention. She glanced over at him. “It came up when I researched him for SHIELD. I take it he told you.”

“How could I not have noticed this?” he asked, feeling annoyed that she had thought to do what he hadn’t.

She smoothed the hair on his head. “You’re very oblivious sometimes,” she told him, turning to watch the birds again. “So what did Tony tell you?”

“Just that. And he likes to tease me.”

“We all knew that.”

“Except me apparently.”

She nodded, giving him a playful shove. “Where is Tony?”

“I think he’s taking a shower. Peter’s with him.” She pierced him with another of her looks and he answered the question she didn’t have to ask. “We’re not changing things while this mess with Peter is happening. We can’t afford to be distracted.”

“And after?”

Steve had no answer. He didn’t know what he wanted to happen in the future. He had largely given up on love and romance years ago when it became clear that he was different from the others, that his trajectory wasn’t going to be the same as those he loved. Now that there was a possibility of a future, he felt like running and running fast.

“Steve?” Nat was touching his arm. She searched his face with her green eyes. “I’m just teasing you. I like to do that too.”

“Lost my focus,” he mumbled.

“You don’t need to know.”

They were interrupted by a shriek from the kitchen. “You want to do what?” they heard May shout and turning, they saw her gesticulating at Tony who was grinning broadly at her. Steve couldn’t help smiling too; whatever it was that Tony had suggested, it must have been insane.

“Let’s go find out how crazy you are to be attracted to that man,” Natasha suggested, hopping down from the window ledge. She pulled Steve behind her. “What does he want to do?” she asked May, leaning on the counter.

“He wants to take Peter out in one of the Iron Man suits,” she said, sounding exasperated.

“It’s not like I’m going to bring him to an active war zone or fly over the ocean. We’ll go ten feet in the air and swoop a little,” Tony told her. He was grinning at Steve and arched his eyebrows. Next to him, Peter was jumping in an attempt to climb the counter.

Steve bent to grab Peter under the armpits and lifted him up on the counter. The toddler leaned against him, hanging onto his arm and kicking his legs out happily. “Please, May,” he pleaded, drawing out the ay sound in her name.

Tony wrapped his arm around her. “Please,” he said in an accurate imitation of Peter’s begging voice.

She scoffed. “You’d go up regardless, won’t you?”

“I prefer to have your approval,” he said smoothly. 

She rubbed her eyes, looking tired. “What are you going to do to keep him safe?”

“I thought I’d dangle him by one leg and- May, he’s my baby! I’m going to strap him in that hideous thing, you know the one with the straps,” he gestured wildly with his hands, miming what appeared to be a straitjacket, “and he’ll be snug against me. We’ll go out as a team.” He cocked his eyebrow at her. “I could carry you up. I know you like to fly.”

“I absolutely hate to fly,” she told him, but her mouth was quirking in a smile that told Steve that Tony had won. Tony seemed to know it too. He pulled her into a hug that lifted her off the ground and she giggled before ordering him to put her down.

Most of the others agreed to accompany the toddler outside, save Natasha and Bruce who seemed to have formed a plan for the day that did not include outdoor sports. It was the first truly beautiful day they’d had after getting rained on for the majority of the week and Steve could feel an autumnal wind flick over him as they moved away from the Compound.

“You brought your gear?” Steve asked Sam as he walked next to him.

He nodded. “I promised the squirt I’d bring him up with my wings.”

“He’s still got us all wrapped around his finger,” Steve sighed. “Probably even more so now than before.”

“I don’t mind. Nice to have something that isn’t death and destruction, you know?” Sam beckoned to Scott, who seemed to be studying the grass. “Man, what are you doing?”

Scott looked up. He rolled his shoulders. “Is it just me or does this grass have a pattern in it? Like, a weird pattern just in this one spot?”

“That’s where Thor took off with the Bifrost. It’s a- you know what, nevermind,” Steve said, giving up on trying to explain. “But he burned an imprint into the ground.” He could remember how ticked Tony was at the god for leaving an 8 foot burn in the grounds, but years later, he still found it kind of hilarious on his end. The fact that the burn had remained only made it funnier to him.

Speaking of Tony... “This is really your fault,” Tony told May, as she helped strap Peter to the front of his chest.

“Oh, and why’s that?” she asked, tightening the straps that ran over his shoulders.

He smiled at her. “You got me this thing. There was no need.”

“I do love spending your money,” she commented idly.

“It’s your money too.” He made a funny face at Peter. “I forgot how uncomfortable these things were. You’d think they’d have made improvements, ten years later.”

She stepped back to study her handiwork. “How are you feeling Peter? That comfy?” Peter kicked his feet excitedly and nodded. “Don’t go too high, Tony. Please, for my sake.”

“I won’t,” he agreed, the boots and the legs of the suit already flowing around him to form his armor. With a last smile at her, he pushed off the ground, his repulsors firing at a low enough energy level to keep him within five feet of the ground.

Peter shrieked as they left the ground, and grabbed Tony around the neck, but he didn’t seem afraid; rather, as they ascended another foot, he glanced down with something akin to awe on his face. Tony was watching his face, the mirror to Peter’s expression on his own.

“Oh god,” May said next to him, gripping his arm. “If he falls, I’ll never forgive him.”

“He’ll be okay,” Steve told her, wrapping his hand around the one she was holding his arm with. “He’s never fallen before.” She gave him a look and he shrugged, smiling. “Not when he was holding Peter, at least,” he conceded.

“At least he’s taking it slow,” she murmured.

Tony stopped when he was about ten feet in the air. Steve, who couldn’t help but study them from below noticed that a flap had opened at the back of the suit and that this was acting as a repulsor instead of from Tony’s hands; he wondered if that made Tony feel safer. He seemed to be letting the toddler adjust to the height and sensation of hovering. A few minutes passed, and then, with little warning, Tony did a barrel roll that made May let out a groan at the same time that Peter shrieked with pure joy.

Tony showboated for Peter, taking him on dips and twirls that Steve was sure he hadn’t mentioned to May. True to his word, he never got higher than a dozen feet off the ground, but he could tell from the death grip on his arm that this was poor consolation to Tony’s long suffering older sibling.

Sam approached and stood on her other side. “He kind of reminds me of how the kid moves usually,” the ex-soldier said and Steve realized he was right. Tony wasn’t moving the way he typically would in the Iron Man suit; his tucks and rolls were much more reminiscent of the teenager superhero. They could hear Peter laughing his head off.

Peter was very upset when Tony finally landed; it didn’t seem that he had wanted to stop. Steve was sure that riding with Tony in the suit had probably felt like an amazing amusement park ride. “Don’t want you to get sick, mimmo,” Tony explained patiently, lifting Peter out of the toddler carrier. “We can go up again in a little bit.”

The others distracted him. He ‘sparred’ with Steve, who had to be very mindful to limit his strength. Scott showed him how his suit worked. As Giantman, he was able to lift Peter in the palm of his hands, but Peter seemed to inexplicably love Scott best when the man shrunk himself down to a man the same height as a toddler. He seemed to view Scott in this form as a friend, and kept hugging the brunette.

Tony gave reluctant permission to Sam to take Peter up in the Falcon gear. Walking beneath him, Tony admitted that it was making him anxious. “Good,” May said. “Now you know how I feel.”

They’d packed a picnic and this they set up under the largest oak tree on the grounds. Peter dove in and out of piles of leaves while they got the food ready and finally collapsed on top of Tony where he was sitting between Steve and May. “Having a good day, kid?”

“The best!”

As soon as they said he could, he took off again after lunch, heading for the playground. May propped herself against the tree, watching him climb. “This was a good day, Tony.” She rubbed his back. “I’m glad we’re spending the day with him.”

He nodded. “Me too.”

“How does he have so much energy?” Steve wondered aloud.

“The real shock is that he maintained this level of energy for another ten years,” Tony answered, watching Peter sprint back and forth. “I thought he’d slow down at some point.”

Above them, the clouds shifted so that the last of the afternoon light fell upon them, almost translucent in the fall air. The wind ruffled through Tony as he watched Peter run away from Sam; he waved and Peter changed directions heading for him. Behind them, Steve’s super hearing picked up the sound of a closing door.

He turned and watched as Natasha walked towards them. She seemed to be studying the group and made a tiny wave when she saw that he was watching. Tony had looked over at Steve and, seeing that he was looking towards the Compound, turned himself.

“Finally coming to join us, Agent Romanoff?” Tony asked, his eyes shining in the sudden light.

“I am. Tony, you look kind of cold.” She brushed his nose fondly.

“I’m a little cold,” he admitted. “But we’ve been running around. It’s just now that we’ve stopped…” Something in her face seemed to cut him off mid-ramble. “What’s up?”

“Bruce wanted me to tell you… the machine’s ready.”

Steve turned around completely at that, his body mimicking the shock Tony seemed to feel. “It’s ready…?” he asked slowly. “You mean, ready to test?”

She shook her head. “We’ve already tested it, Tony. A couple of times. You don’t want to know,” she added, interpreting the look on Tony’s face. She shrugged. “We could fix this, tonight.”

“Daddy!” Wheeling around, Tony was suddenly bombarded by Peter flinging himself against his legs. He lifted Peter without thinking about it, hugging him close. “Daddy, Sam’s been chasing me,” Peter laughed. “Did you see?”

“I saw baby, I saw.” He looked at Natasha. “Tonight?” he asked.


	16. Pretty Maids All in a Row

“Tonight,” she agreed. “Unless you have a good reason not to?”

He shook his head, looking a bit numb. “We said that the longer he’s like this, the more damage it could potentially do right?”

“That’s right,” she agreed softly.

“Then we’d better do it.”

She touched his arm. “I’m going to tell Bruce to get it set up then. We can do it tonight? After dinner.” He nodded and she left, touching Steve on the stomach as she passed him.

“Tony? You okay?” Steve touched his arm. “This is good news, isn’t it?”

Tony’s arms tightened around Peter. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. I’m just-,” he fumbled for words. Peter swiveled to look at him and Tony kissed him on the forehead without thinking about it. “I want my version, but I just- like this one too…”

“Daddy sad?” Peter asked, touching his beard.

Tony blew out a breath and smiled at the toddler. “A little.”

“Why are you sad?”

Tony bounced him gently, lost in thought and apparently unable to come up with the right thing to say. “I love you Petey. You love me?” Peter nodded dramatically, tracing the edge of his beard. “Okay, good.”

Peter chewed on his fingers. “Want a hug?” It came out muffled.

Tony nodded. “I would never turn down a Peter hug.” He made an oomph sound when Peter threw himself on Tony’s neck, but squeezed him tight, kissing him on the head several times. “Still going to give me hugs like this when you’re all grown up, Pete?”

“Yeah…”

“Alright then. It’s a spoken agreement. Later, we can formalize this into something a little more concrete.” Peter giggled. Steve wondered if he understood anything Tony had just said. Tony knelt down so that Peter could stand on the ground and look him in the eye. “You want to go play now, bambino?”

Peter nodded, already looking impatiently over at the play structure. “Alright then, bud. Go play. I’ll be right here,” Tony said, and Peter took off. Steve couldn’t help but wrap an arm around Tony’s shoulders. The brunette looked at him as if to say something and then closed his mouth, seeming to have nothing to say or perhaps, nothing he could put into words.

May drifted over to where they were standing. “Tony? What’s going on?” she asked, her dark brown eyes searching his.

He coughed. “They’ve fixed the machine. It’s ready to go.”

“To fix Peter-?” she asked and when he nodded, a closed expression came across her face. “Oh. Okay.”

“What are you thinking?” he queried, shifting his weight restlessly.

“I’m worried, same as you,” she replied automatically. “Is it safe?”

He looked over at Steve. “Nat says that it is,” Steve said hesitantly. “She’s tested it somehow.” He looked at Tony. “Nat loves Peter. We all do. She’d never let us use the machine unless she knew that it was absolutely safe.”

Tony hummed. “I know. I’ll take a look at it myself tonight before we do anything. May…”

Standing on her tiptoes, she grabbed Tony’s face between her hands and kissed his forehead. “Sitting here and stewing in your worry isn’t going to help you then. Come play with your kid, honey.” Slipping between them, she wrapped an arm around both their waists and pushed them firmly towards where the others were playing with Peter.

When the sun began to slide below the horizon level, they decided to head in. Peter tugged on Tony’s pant leg. “You said we’d fly again,” he reminded his dad. “Today.”

The engineer knelt on the grass so that he was at Peter’s eye level. “I did say that, didn’t I?” He mused thoughtfully. Peter nodded, smiling brilliantly. He giggled when Tony cupped his face. “Well, I can’t break my promise.”

“You can’t,” Peter agreed solemnly.

“We’ll go start dinner, Stark,” Sam said, pushing past him into the compound.

“I’ll help. I have a feeling I’m not going to want to see this,” May said, ruffling Tony’s hair.

Steve watched the others head into the Compound. “I’ll stick with you,” he offered.

Tony stood up, hefting Peter in his arms. “Steve will be our ground control,” he told Peter, who laughed. He wiggled his eyebrows at the blonde. “Are you going to catch us if we fall?”

“You won’t fall,” Cap said, shaking his head with a smile. “But yeah, that’s the idea.”

“Okay, well we can’t go up for very long Pete. Dinner’s cooking.” He bent down to scoop the toddler carrier off the ground. “Gotta put you down if I’m going to put this on, baby.”

Steve helped him struggle into the harness. He tightened the straps carefully. “These things are a bit awkward to wear, huh?”

Tony huffed. “You don’t know the half of it. Put Peter in so he’s facing me. Please.”

Pretending to struggle with how heavy he was, Steve lifted Peter off the ground and into the harness. He kicked his legs excitedly and Steve was sure he was going to get Tony in the mouth or somewhere else that was vital. Tony might have had the same thought; he grabbed Pete’s legs to guide them through the harness. 

“Here we go, Pete.” Already the Iron-Man armor was flowing around them. Peter bounced with excitement and slapped Tony repeatedly on the chest. It didn’t seem to hurt; Tony gave him a crooked smile and then blasted off the ground. Steve could hear the toddler shriek with excitement as they rapidly rose ten feet. Steve thought he’d stop there, but Tony went up another twenty feet and hovered in the air, turning slowly.

Tony didn’t do any fancy tricks this time. Peter seemed to be looking up at the stars and, from where Steve was standing below them, it looked like Tony was looking up too. Steve couldn’t look at the stars when he was too worried that Tony would have a panic attack, but it did seem that for the time being at least, the other superhero was strangely calm. Below them, Steve allowed himself to relax as well.

Closing his eyes, he listened to Tony talking to Peter above him. He was naming the stars and Steve was surprised to learn that Tony was so knowledgeable on the subject. He vaguely remembered Peter telling him months and months ago that Tony had taught him about space; he’d forgotten this since then.

Dinner was rowdy, the first one with all of them present at the same time. Peter was sitting between Sam and Scott and the two men seemed more focused on making him laugh than eating; Tony, by comparison, was very quiet. In between pushing his food around, he watched the toddler contemplatively and evaded May’s attempts to engage him in conversation. As soon as dinner ended, he followed Bruce down to the lab to test the machine. The others took their time to finish up.

Captain started to help Scott clear up the table, but May snagged him and pulled Steve with her to Peter’s room. “What are we doing, May?”

“I told Tony I’d get him into his pajamas while he was doing the testing. I thought you’d like to help.”

“Oh,” Steve said. He felt tears prick in the corners of his eyes and blinked rapidly to keep them away. He didn’t understand why he felt so sad all of a sudden. They were getting their Peter back, the Peter he’d watched grow up into such a kind person. He should be happy... 

May was dancing with Peter, whirling him in wide loops. “Let’s get you into something more comfy,” she told the toddler finally, dropping him on the bed. He immediately began hopping around on the bed, babbling to himself.

“How about the Spiderman pajamas,” Steve suggested, remembering the first night that they’d gotten back from the mission.

She laughed. “He’d like that, I think,” she agreed cheerfully.

“Hey, Spidey, come over here,” Steve called, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Peter barrel rolled and landed next to him. “Steve, when am I going to be Spiderman again?” he asked, making thwipping sounds as he pretended to shoot webs at May. She laughed and ducked.

“You think you’re ready to go back out there?” Steve asked, mock seriously.

Peter nodded. “I’ve been training all day.” He leaned against Steve while May swapped him into his pajama pants. 

“Oh god, Pete, I love you.”

“Me too,” May agreed.

“And me.”

They all looked up to find Tony leaning on the door. Peter puffed his chest out looking at his dad. “Everyone loves me,” he said confidently.

Tony jerked his head in agreement. “Everyone here at least,” he agreed. Crossing the room, he wrapped his arm around Peter, pulling him into his body. “So you’d like to be Spiderman again.” He bent so that him and Peter were looking each other in the eye.

“I can help you fight the bad guys.”

“What if I want to keep you safe?”

“You always do,” Peter said so confidently it made Steve’s heart flutter.

Scooping him under the armpits, Tony stood up again, leaning Peter against his chest. He tucked Peter’s head into his neck, keeping one hand protectively on the back of the toddler’s head. “I always will. You sleepy, baby?”

“Uh huh.”

“Makes sense. It’s getting pretty late for you.”

“Is it time for bed?”

“Kinda.” Standing him on the bed, Tony finished pulling Peter’s arms into the sleeves of his pajamas and zipped him up the rest of the way. “We’re going to go on a field trip, you might say.”

Peter brightened, though he was looking sleepier by the second. “A trip? Tonight?”

“If you want to,” he agreed. Steve wondered if Tony was looking for a way out, but Peter was already nodding. “Okay. Want to ride on my shoulders?”

“Yeah.” So Tony sat on the edge of the bed and Peter scrambled up onto his shoulders. Holding onto his legs, Tony stood up. “Coming with?” he asked the other two adults, looking back at them expectantly.

May lowered her hand where it had been covering her mouth. “Of course.” Steve didn’t really trust himself to speak so he gave a funny jerk and stood up himself.

Tony led them to the lab that Bruce worked in. A hospital bed had been set up in the middle of the room, and he laid Peter on this. Sitting in the chair beside the bed, he began to describe some of what the machines around them did. Peter sleepily listened, asking questions here and there. Steve grabbed two more chairs, seating May beside him on the side opposite Tony.

Steve thought the toddler might have drifted off entirely if he hadn’t seen Bruce begin to move machinery closer to him. The essentially revamped Cradle looked enormous compared to Peter’s small size. He eyed it wearily. “Hey,” Tony said, moving so that he was sitting on the side of the bed. He reached out and ran his fingers lightly through Peter’s hair. “What’s going on behind those brown eyes?”

Peter leaned more fully into Tony’s hands. He fumbled with the blanket. “I’m afraid of the machine,” he mumbled finally.

“Hmm,” Tony hummed. “Yeah, that machine looks pretty scary.” Getting up, he lifted the blanket. “Come on, scoot over. You’re going to leave me with my butt hanging out?”

Peter laughed at that. Once he had moved over, Tony climbed in beside him on the bed. Tony spoke to Peter like he was the only person in the room. “Would I let anything dangerous happen to you?”

“No,” Peter whispered, snuggling into Tony’s side.

Tony kissed him on the top of his head. “Then I won’t let anything bad happen to you now, either,” he promised. “Why don’t you tell me what you want to do tomorrow?”

“Will you play superheroes with me?”

The engineer huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I think that’s doable.”

Peter held his arms out before him, making a whooshing movement. “I liked flying, Daddy. Tomorrow we should go higher.”

“We’ll have to ask May. Don’t want to scare her.” From where she was sitting, May made a sound that was half laugh, half disbelieving scoff.

“Are you gonna be here when I wake up Daddy?”

Tony wrapped his hand around Peter’s, enveloping it. “Of course I will.”

“Good.” He stretched his other hand out. “Tap,” he commanded.

Tony laid both of Peter’s tiny hands on top of his left hand with the palms face up. With his right hand, he tapped his fingers gently across the palms and then traced shapes in each one. Watching him, Peter quieted almost immediately. Their brown eyes looked at each other. Tony began to sing, very quietly. “Close your eyes. Have no fear. The monster’s gone. He’s on the run and your daddy’s here… Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…”

Humming, Peter seemed to decide he could sleep in that moment. He nuzzled Tony’s side where his face was resting and dropped off into sleep.

“Why don’t you get him out of the pjs, Tony?” Bruce suggested in a whisper, grabbing a blanket from the medical supply closet. “He’s not going to be too comfortable once he ages up,” he added, seeing Steve’s confusion.

“Oh, yeah.” The others stepped outside of the curtained area to give Tony and Peter’s some privacy. Steve could hear Tony settling him back into the bed and a minute later, he pushed the curtain aside again.

Bruce pulled their machine over the bed, positioning it carefully over Peter’s body. “We’re going to stand behind that wall, when we do this,” he explained, indicating a wall with an observation window. “Need to contain this reaction.”

Steve got up and followed May into the room indicated; Tony followed, but very reluctantly.

Bruce turned the machine on, punching in calculations from the notebook that Tony normally worked in. Slipping into the room where they were standing, he shut the door and typed in the last commands. A scanning light beamed down to where Peter’s feet were and moved slowly up his body before disappearing.

There was a blinding light and they turned away, shielding their eyes. Steve could hear the sharp intake of breath that Tony made but the light faded almost immediately, leaving perceptible spots in their vision. No matter- Tony and Steve had both turned back to the glass and Peter- Steve could tell immediately that at the very least, Peter was the size he should have been. They wouldn’t be able to tell if Peter’s abilities and state of mind were back where they should be until he woke up… already Peter seemed to be twitching awake.

Tony pushed through the door of the observation room and was halfway across the room when Peter opened his eyes. The engineer froze; Peter’s eyes were unfocused and seemed to be looking at something just over Tony’s shoulders. His eyes sharpened and then several things happened at once.

Peter let out a scream that made the hairs on Steve’s arms stand up, the teenager turned over on his side and curled into a fetal position, his arms protectively over his ears, he squeezed his eyes shut, and Tony yelled, sounding frightened, “Peter? FRIDAY, what’s happening?”

“Peter is having a sensory overload.”

“Shit,” Tony swore. “Fri, turn the lights down to 10% and dampen the noise.”

The change was immediate. They were all plunged into near darkness. Around them, Steve heard all the machinery in the vicinity come to a halt. Tony stepped carefully across the room, trying to make as little noise as possible, and opened a drawer. He pulled out a pair of headphones that Steve recognized right away- Peter’s headphones that blocked out noise entirely. These Tony secured over Peter’s ears.

With the majority of sound and light falling away, Peter did seem to unclench from the fetal hold he had been in, but he continued to twitch slightly. Tony hovered over him, his hands a couple of inches over Peter’s face, clearly desperate to touch him and comfort him and unable to do so because of the risk of worsening his sensory overload.

Steve could see in the near dark, another benefit of the serum, he thought. Trying to step as quietly as he could, he moved soundlessly to stand beside Tony. They watched helplessly while Peter continued to clench and unclench his hands. At least it’s getting better, Steve wanted to tell Tony.

The other superhero seemed to be thinking it himself. When Peter seemed to have finally stopped twitching, he made a quiet order. “Stats, Fri.”

“Peter’s vitals fall within the range we have on file. His heart rate is…” As FRIDAY listed off his vitals signs, Tony laid a careful hand on Peter’s arm. He didn’t react except to raise his thumb in a thumbs up gesture.

Trailing his fingers then over the side of Peter’s face, he tapped him just below the ear. “It’s okay,” Peter whispered, his voice sounding out of use.

That was all the confirmation Tony seemed to need. He slid the headphones off Peter’s ears. “Baby,” he breathed, beaming down at the teen. Leaning over him, he touched the side of Peter’s face, caressing it. “Open your eyes,” he begged. “Look at me.”

Peter scrunched his face up and then, almost reluctantly as though he was afraid of being hurt, he opened his eyes at last. Flopping his head to the side, he looked up at his father. “Hey, Dad. What’s up?”

“What’s up,” Tony croaked, grinning crookedly down at Peter. “That’s the first thing you say to me?” He kissed Peter’s forehead, pushing the teen’s bangs out of the way.

Peter hummed. “Seemed like a catchy beginning. Hey Cap.”

“Hey Pete. You had us all scared there for a minute.”

The teenager looked confused. “Why, what happened? The sensory overload? That happens sometimes.” Reaching up, he tapped Tony on the side of his face. “What happened?”

“We can explain after we get you checked out. How do you feel about getting a little more light in here?”

“That’s fine.” Tony set the lights up to 40% and Bruce and May came out. When Peter saw May, he lit up. “Mayyy…” he said sleepily.

“Hi honey.” Coming to stand on his other side, she kissed him on the cheek.

“Dad’s looking all serious. Something happen?”

“The usual weird shit you put us through,” she said, looking at him fondly. 

He looked up at Tony. Tony blew out a breath and then reluctantly provided a summary. “The Nazis we were hunting got a hold of you and used this machine that turned you into a toddler and we’ve spent the week trying to fix that.”

Peter scrunched his face in abject confusion. “That can’t be true.” Tony was already sliding his phone out of his pocket. Swiping through his pictures, he brought up a hologram of the picture that Steve had taken days ago of himself holding Peter while they slept. “Could be an old picture,” Peter told him, smiling sleepily.

Tony huffed. Continuing to swipe through the photos, he came across one that Nat must have sent him- Peter piggybacking on Steve’s back. “Seems pretty sick that we would have defrosted Steve just to take this picture and then put him back in the ice for another four years.”

“Oh… oh no..”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, leaning over the teen. “Yeah, oh no covers it pretty well.”

Peter seemed to be tapping his thigh with his hand under the covers. “Why don’t I have clothes?”

“Would you have preferred to Hulk your way through your pjs?” Tony flashed a smile at Bruce as he walked in with a stack of sweats. “No offense, bud.”

“Those days are behind me,” Bruce said smoothly. “Here, Pete, I have some clothes that will fit you.”

They pulled the curtain and let him change into the proffered sweats. Steve could hear him struggling; Peter didn’t seem altogether coordinated yet and he wondered if that was a side effect of the change or just his normal teenage clumsiness. Tony offered help once and was completely rejected. “Alright, I’m done,” Peter said finally and they pushed the curtain back again.

Peter made to stand up and stumbled; before he could fall, Tony was there to brace him. Seeming to make a split second decision, the engineer made a slight oomph noise and lifted Peter up in his arms, twirling him in a quick, lazy circle. Surprised, Peter laughed and clung to his shoulders. “Hi baby, I’ve missed you,” Tony said, setting him back on the ground, but not letting go.

Pete laughed, leaning his forehead against Tony’s cheek. “How could you have missed me Dad? It sounds like you had a fun week.”

“I did, but I still missed you.”

“Are we going to hang with the others? Where are they?” Peter opened his eyes again, giving Tony a winning smile. “Please, Dad?”

“No, you need to rest. You’re going to bed and we’ll see them all tomorrow.”

“We could see them for a little while. While you explain what happened,” Peter cajoled.

Steve could see that Tony’s resolve was already wavering. Resting his chin on the top of Peter’s head, he sighed. “Fine. They all want to see you. But as soon as you start falling asleep, I’m putting you to bed.”

“Deal.” Standing on his tiptoes, Peter kissed Tony on the cheek. 

Insisting that he had his pride to think of, Peter wouldn’t let Tony carry him but clung to him as they made the short walk to the elevator and while they waited for it to ascend. Bruce explained that this was to be expected after using Cradle technology and that it would pass, though Peter would be very tired for the next couple of days.

“You already look tired,” Tony pointed out, pulling Peter to stand against him as they rose to the common floor.

“Mm,” Peter agreed. “But I want to see everyone. And you have to tell me more about what happened. And tomorrow I want to look at the machine…”

The teenager continue to ramble as Tony pushed him out into the common area, steering him into the loveseat almost immediately. Steve could tell he was tired by the way he was blinking owlishly, but Peter seemed determined to stay awake and socialize. In characteristic fashion, he was very excited to meet Scott and to talk to him about Pym technology, while also trading barbs with Sam. Tony mostly listened from where he was sitting next to Pete; once or twice Steve and him caught each other's eyes.

Sheer exhaustion seemed to be finally catching up with Peter. The third time he nodded off, Tony declared that they would have to finish talking in the morning. Getting up, he tugged Pete to his feet as well. The others crowded around him to say goodnight. 

Peter was swaying on his feet. Cap surprised him by picking him but he laughed and let Steve carry him. “Good service,” he told the blond, his smile digging lines into the corners of his mouth.

“We could rent him out,” Tony agreed.

“We don’t need the money,” Peter laughed. “Thanks, Steve,” he added, when Steve put him down on his bed. He snuggled into the covers, seeming to deflate even more to the point where he looked practically boneless.

“You need anything, baby?”

Peter hummed, almost asleep. “Sing about the maids,” he asked with a grin. “Like you used to- remember?”

“Yeah, I think I remember,” his dad said tartly. Huffing, Tony combed his fingers through Peter’s hair. “Hi there, how are you? It’s been a long time,” he sang. “Seems like we’ve come a long way…”

“Night, Dad,” Peter said sleepily. Getting up, Tony kissed him on the forehead and pulled the blankets on the bed so that they covered him better. For a moment, he stood watching Peter sleep, his hands jammed in his pockets.

Then Tony jerked his head towards the door and they both walked out of the room, the engineer flicking the light switch as he left. Standing outside the room, Tony leaned against the door. He looked at Steve. For a moment, neither of them said anything.

“Alright, well I guess I’m going to go to bed now,” Steve said, taking a step down the hall. 

Tony’s hand shot out and grabbed Steve’s wrist. Steve met his eyes in surprise. Cocking his eyebrows, the billionaire gave his arm a tug. ‘You want to,’ his expression seemed to ask. Steve broke into a grin. Nodding, he let the other man pull him towards the bedroom at the end of the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me for this story! I had a great time writing it and hope you enjoyed reading it as well!


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